IAEA plans to inspect contaminated water release plan at Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant in December - China.org.cn

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will dispatch a team of experts to Japan's Fukushima Prefecture in December to review the country's plan to dump radioactive water from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant into the sea, an IAEA official said Thursday.

The plan was proposed after China and South Korea, as well as local fishing communities, have voiced strong criticism against releasing the contaminated water accumulated at the plant since the 2011 massive earthquake and tsunami catastrophe in northeastern Japan.

"The agency is firmly committed to ensuring that the review is comprehensive and objective and that the results are conveyed to the international community," Lydie Evrard, head of the Department of Nuclear Safety and Security of the IAEA, said at an online news conference.

The Japanese government decided in April to start discharging the water into sea from around spring of 2023.

The decision has received strong criticism from China and other neighboring countries.