by Ali Jaswal
ISLAMABAD, July 22 (Xinhua) -- The International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) report on Japan's planned dump of nuclear wastewater into the Pacific Ocean is wrong, a Pakistani nuclear scientist said.
Zafar Koreshi, dean of graduate studies at Air University Pakistan, made the remarks in an interview with Xinhua.
"I think it's a very favorable treatment to Japan by the IAEA. It ignored the interest of the local people who are affected by this and the regional countries who are going to be affected by this," Koreshi said.
So it's legitimate for China, South Korea and other regional countries to demand a joint mechanism in order to get their concerns addressed, Koreshi said.
The scientist said Fukushima, like the Chernobyl disaster, was a level-7 nuclear accident, the highest on the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale.
Japan's plan to dump contaminated water into the Pacific Ocean is extremely dangerous and harmful to the fish as the nuclear wastewater contains cesium, strontium, iodine and tritium, carbon-14, and cobalt 60, with some of them being radioactive, Koreshi said.
The scientist said the Chernobyl accident caused a very high level of radiation of damage to the fish, adding that if people eat this kind of contaminated food, it would affect the health of millions of people for many years.
"It goes deep into the human DNA, and affects medical structure inside our body, and is transmitted through generations," said the expert.
The biggest loser from Japan's nuclear wastewater discharge will be the Japanese fishermen, Japanese people and the entire country itself, Koreshi said.
The Pacific is a very big ocean, where the dump of nuclear wastewater would potentially affect all the regional countries which are heavily dependent on the fish and the plants that grow beneath the water.
Koreshi urged Japan to immediately cease this plan and work with neighbor countries to conduct scientific research and simulations to study the potential effects on marine life. ■
