25 Aug 2023

Pacific correspondent Lydia Lewis

From Nine To Noon, 9:45 am on 25 August 2023
Demonstrators hold slogans during a protest outside the Japanese prime minister's office against the government's plan to release treated water from the Fukushima nuclear plant into the ocean, on April 13, 2021.

Demonstrators hold slogans during a protest outside the Japanese prime minister's office against the government's plan to release treated water from the Fukushima nuclear plant into the ocean, on April 13, 2021. Photo: Yuki Iwamura / AFP

Pacific leaders are committing to holding Japan to account should anything go wrong with the release of over one million tonnes of treated nuclear wastewater into the Pacific - which is officially underway.

Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings confirmed to RNZ Pacific the disposal went ahead at 1pm local time on Thursday, after backlash from protestors in China, south Korea and right across the Pacific.

Pacific correspondent Lydia Lewis has been covering the story.