Nearly 27% increase in the price of salt in South Korea in June.
Seoul:
South Korean shoppers reach for sea salt and other items as safety concerns mount with Japan following the dumping of more than 1 million tons of treated radioactive water from a wrecked nuclear power plant into the sea.
The water was mainly used to cool damaged reactors at the Fukushima power plant north of Tokyo after it was hit by an earthquake and tsunami in 2011.
The release of the water from huge storage tanks in the Pacific Ocean is expected soon, although no date has been set.
Japan has repeatedly assured that the water is safe, saying it has been filtered to remove most of the isotopes, although it contains trace amounts of tritium, an isotope of hydrogen that is difficult to separate from water.
But fishermen and shoppers in Japan and the rest of the region are fearful.
“I recently bought 5 kilograms of salt,” said Lee Young-min, a 38-year-old mother of two, as she made seaweed soup in her kitchen in Seongnam, just south of the South Korean capital of Seoul.
She said she had never bought so much salt but felt she had to do what she could to protect her family.
“As a mom raising two kids, I can’t sit back and do nothing. I want to feed them safely.”
The rush to stockpile contributed to a nearly 27% increase in South Korea’s salt price in June from two months ago, though officials say weather and lower production were also to blame.
In response, the government is releasing about 50 tons of salt per day from stockpiles until July 11, at a 20% discount to market prices, Deputy Fisheries Minister Song Sang-keun said on Wednesday.
South Korean fisheries authorities say they will closely monitor salt farms for any increase in radioactivity. South Korea has banned seafood from the waters off Fukushima, off Japan’s east coast.
China has also criticized Japan’s plan to release the water, accusing it of a lack of transparency and saying it poses a threat to the marine environment and the health of people around the world.
Japan says it has provided neighbors with detailed and scientifically based explanations of its plan.
Japan’s cabinet secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said last week that Japan was seeing growing understanding of the issue, though that wasn’t as clear in stores in Seoul this week.
“I came to buy salt, but there’s nothing left,” said 73-year-old Kim Myung-ok, standing by the supermarket’s empty shelves. “Last time I came, there wasn’t one either.”
“The release of water is a concern. We are old and have lived enough, but I am concerned about the children.”
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