Korean Consumers are Allegedly Hoarding Sea Salt Due to Fukushima Fears
Korean shoppers are supposedly hoarding sea salt due to fears that all the salt off the shores of Korea will soon be contaminated by the release of radioactive water from the Fukushima nuclear plant:
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| Workers produce sea salt at a salt farm in Sinan County, South Jeolla Province, in October 2021. Korea Times photo by Seo Jae-hoon |
The Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries denied that the salt price has increased due to hoarding amid the Fukushima concerns.
Korea Times
“The major cause for the salt price rise was a decrease in production due to more rainy days than usual and retailers’ stockpiling in preparation for the monsoon season,” a ministry official said.
But the view of industry players was different. They said that while this year’s production decreased by about 30 percent from a year earlier, this was not enough to explain the soaring salt price at present.
“Japan’s plan has scared consumers off. This would not be the sole reason for increasing salt prices but had some impact for sure,” an official of a salt farm in Sinan County said.
You can read more at the link, but the IAEA approved of the plan by the Japanese to release the water into the ocean with a small enough amount of radioactivity that it would be diluted. According to the Korean government they have stepped up monitoring of the ocean water around Korea and have not detected any radioactivity.
Let’s get this straight. IAEA is an organization that is pro-nuclear power that wants to push its agenda of expanding nuclear energy for the world. It would be against their main goal if they admit that nuclear plants can be unsafe and damage irreversible. It’s in their best interest to push the idea that there’s nothing seriously wrong at the Fukushima plant and that the leaking radioactive materials pose no health hazards to those who eat the fish that swam in those materials. After all, aren’t you also saying organizations like Green Peace are biased and untrustable due to their biased agendas?
Furthermore, the head of the IAEA is an Argentinian named Rafael Mariano Grossi. Like the UN, WTO, WHO, etc, which were previously led by third-world despot nations, there’s no guarantee that there is no corruption at the IAEA. And we all know when it comes to the financial lobbying of politicians and leaders abroad, Japan is second to none in buying up their influence.
This is not a one-time dump. They will continue to dump radioactive materials for years and years as long as the plants continue to leak radioactive material (Chernyobol is still radioactive after almost 40 years) which means this pollution will never end at any time in our lifespan. If there are going to be any serious health effects, nobody would know until at least 10 years later, and at that time, they will simply blame all the exploding cancer cases on other ‘factors’.
And lastly, it’s not just the Koreans who are worried that their major source of protein will be contaminated. It’s also a good portion of the Japanese population who are also worried, as well as the countries of the South Pacific who recently placed an objection to Japan’s plans. It’s a matter of trust. Remember how Tokyo Electric, the Japanese government handled the Fukushima disaster, all the incompetence, the shortcuts used to build the plants, as well as all the media coverups. Japan, under Abe, in 2012 passed a law that prosecuted any media companies that published damaging stories about the disaster. That law effectively silenced the Japanese media, and made them tow the Japanese government line that everything is under control, that there are no more dangers, and that it’s safe to eat foods grown and caught around Fukushima. This is why Japan’s press freedom has tanked to become the worst ranked in the developed country, ranking along with some Third World countries with authoritarian countries.
If you would never dare to eat foods grown in Chernyobol, why anyone would think that foods grown in Fukushima would be safe – yet the Japanese government continues to push the lies that it’s safe to eat Fukushima produces and seafood. Does anybody (other than the naive) trust this same Japanese government that has a really bad habit of lying about so many things, and covering up so many things, not to mention their inability to face history truthfully? Maybe the Japanese government can fool the Americans who only look at their main interest which is containing China, and need Japan as an ally (so therefore willing to overlook and ignore any of their faults).
If they release the materials, one thing sure will happen. It will wipe out the entire fishing industry in Korea as well as Japan because no one will buy any seafood to take a chance. We’re talking billions in economic damages for years to come.
more nonsensical fear spread by south korean commies….remember the US beef bs scare?
Hahaha… Korea Man, you fret over Fukushima water dumps where a calculator can tell you the exact risk level for cancer…
…yet you ethisiastically became the subject of a failed medical experiment that is exactly the type of cellular intetaction that increases the risk of cancer.
Your opinion is invalid.
Go yell at the sky.
Protip: Get a map because yelling toward the Fukushima sky might be more effective.
Chickenhead, do you want to argue with this former Japanese engineer who was part of the team that designed the Fukushima plants, who says that the Japanese government should be charged with crimes against humanity if they dump the radioactive waters when there are safer ways to neutralize the radiation in the waters? Even he’s saying the Japanese government is totally lying. Koto Masashi, Fukushima nuke plant architect interviewed by a South Korean magazine.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qeUyP6silJY&t=2s&ab_channel=MBC%EB%9D%BC%EB%94%94%EC%98%A4%EC%8B%9C%EC%82%AC
I am all ears.
What is a safer way to “neutralize” the radiation?
It’s in the interview at 10:40, the Japanese engineer cites a proposal to build a huge concrete wall to store the radioactive water long-term. Storing the water long-term will lessen the radioactivity over time, so there would be no need to dump them into the sea.
So, the proposal is, instead of a controlled release that keeps the radiation near background levels, to recreate the melted reactors in a big concrete pool… in an earthquake zone… for how long?
I think his heart is in the right place.
Chickenhead, the Japanese expert also said, when asked about the ‘scientists’ at the IAEA claiming it’s safe to dump the radiation water for an indefinite number of years, are all quacks bought by the organization. It’s in the same interview.
As for the right wing Yoon government backing Japan’s move to pollute the ocean, they’re completely out of their minds. One of them, the ruling party Prime Minister, Han Duck Soo, says he will be happy to drink the Fukushima nuke plant water.
https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3223952/south-korea-pm-offers-drink-treated-fukushima-water-soothe-critics-japans-discharge-plan
So if the water is so safe, why is Japan (and Korea’s right-wing Yoon government) dumping the water into Japanese lakes to assuage this fear? The water is safe, so it should be OK to dump it inside Japan, right?
I am 100% with you that agenda-driven politicians and bought scientists will push all sorts of crazy and dangerous things to satisfy goals far removed from society’s best interest.
Remeber… I just lived through covid.
But ignoring all the “experts” on both sides, and looking at this fresh, I am pretty convinced diluting it below the level of background radiation over time is better than storing it in one place where concentrated radiation makes any accident hard to manage… and all the water would wind up in the sea anyway in that case… and potentially make management of the melted reactors harder as well.
The difference between medicine and poison is in the dose. (That quote is a couple thousand years old).
There is a bit of debate (involving more politics than science) if all radiation exposure is bad or if some amount is harmless (body can overcome its effects to some point). Some might claim it has benefits in very small amounts (take your radium drops).
Whatever the case, we live with background radiation (or more, if we fly) so only science deniers would complain about less radiation than eating a (amazingly radioactive) banana.
The next conversation we will have is about biochemistry and how different radioactive elements have different effects… from passing through to replacing calcium atoms in your bones.
This is worthy of discussion, while “radiation” is not.