China calls for strict and long-term international supervision over Japan's discharge of nuclear-contaminated wastewater from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant into the ocean, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said on Wednesday.
Guo made the statement at a press conference in Beijing in response to a media query about Japan's wastewater discharge.
"I would like to emphasize that China opposes Japan's unilateral discharge of nuclear-contaminated wastewater into the ocean, and this position remains unchanged. Since last year, Chinese experts have visited Japan twice to independently collect samples and announced the relevant test results in a timely manner. On the basis that Japan has fulfilled its commitments and the test results haven't shown any abnormalities, the General Administration of Customs of China held in Beijing on March 12 technical exchanges with Japan over the safety of Japanese aquatic products," Guo said.
"China will continue to work with the rest of the international community to urge Japan to earnestly fulfill its commitments and ensure that the discharge of Fukushima nuclear-contaminated wastewater into the sea is always under strict international supervision," said the spokesman.
Hit by a magnitude-9.0 earthquake and an ensuing tsunami on March 11, 2011, the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant suffered core meltdowns in three reactors that released radiation, resulting in a level-7 nuclear accident, the highest on the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale.
The plant then generated a massive amount of wastewater tainted with radioactive substances from cooling down the nuclear fuel in the reactor buildings.
Disregarding domestic and foreign questioning and protests, the Japanese government decided in April 2021 to "filter and dilute" the nuclear contaminated wastewater from the plant and started the ocean discharge of the radioactive wastewater on August 24, 2023. This process is expected to last 20 to 30 years, until the nuclear power plant is scrapped.
China calls for strict, long-term international supervision over Fukushima wastewater discharge: spokesman
Dense fog and icy conditions have forced the closure of major expressways in multiple provincial-level regions across China since Friday morning.
At 12:00 on Friday, traffic control measures, including closures, remained in effect on 16 sections of national and provincial trunk roads in Hebei, Henan, Shandong and Xinjiang. Among these, two sections had their mainlines closed, while toll stations on 14 sections were shut.
Starting from the early hours of Friday, multiple areas in Dezhou City of Shandong Province experienced dense fog, with Xiajin, Pingyuan and Yucheng reporting visibility less than 100 meters.
In parts of Xiajin, visibility dropped below 50 meters, prompting local meteorological authorities to issue a red alert for dense fog.
Affected by the fog, temporary control measures were implemented on some expressways within Dezhou, with multiple entrances closed. Traffic police strengthened presence at service areas, entrances and exits of expressways to ensure road safety.
So far, all expressway entrances and exits in Dezhou have resumed normal operation.
Many areas in Hebei also experienced dense fog, with visibility less than 200 meters in eastern Baoding, western Cangzhou, Xingtai, and eastern Handan in the province. Some localities even reported visibility below 50 meters.
Shortly after 6:00, the Hebei Provincial Meteorological Observatory issued an orange alert for dense fog.
From 23:00 on Thursday to Friday morning, over 10 key routes in Hebei, including the Beijing-Hong Kong-Macao, Beijing-Kunming, Daqing-Guangzhou, Tianjin-Shijiazhuang, and Qingdao-Lanzhou expressways, were affected by dense fog.
Expressway traffic police closed some toll stations along these expressways according to fog conditions, and activated traffic diversion points to divert vehicles.
By 10:00 Friday, as visibility improved, some toll stations resumed operation.
On expressway sections with insufficient visibility, traffic police used patrol cars to lead and control the speed of vehicles, guiding stranded traffic to pass through orderly and safely.
Additionally, due to snowfall and icy road surfaces, control measures were taken on 28 expressway sections in Inner Mongolia, Heilongjiang and Xinjiang. Among them, the mainlines of 14 sections were closed, while toll gates were shut on the other 14 ones.
The National Meteorological Center (NMC) issued a blue alert for snowfall on Friday morning, with parts of Inner Mongolia, Heilongjiang and Gansu expected to be hit by heavy snow.
Foggy, icy weather forces road closure across China
