The Japan government has removed a pamphlet and video portraying the isotope tritium in radioactive water from the Fukushima nuclear power facility as a cute mascot character, Sora News reported Friday.
The Reconstruction Agency, the government group overseeing the redevelopment and cleanup of areas affected by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami, released a YouTube video and pamphlet Tuesday which quickly drew criticisms.
'Little Mr. Tritium' was meant to help win support for the discharge of toxic water into the sea but it instead angered Fukushima residents.
"It seems the government's desire to release the water into the sea takes priority over everything...the gap between the gravity of the problems and the levity of the character is huge," The Guardian quoted Katsuo Watanabe, an 82-year old Fukushima fisherman, as saying.
Other local residents say the mascot and video, which the agency hopes will dispel worries about the government's cleanup drive, are "out of sync with the harsh reality of the situation."
The radioactive water is being treated using an advanced liquid processing system which gets rid of most radioactive materials but leaves behind tritium, a hydrogen isotope said to pose very minimal health risk in low concentrations.
"There's no need to worry about health risks from tritium," according to the pamphlet and video, explaining the substance doesn't accumulate in the human body.
The government said work to release the water will start in about two years, and the process is expected to take decades.
"If the government thinks it can get the general public to understand just by creating a cute character, it is making a mockery of risk communication," local writer Riken Komatsu said in a Twitter comment.
Japan's decision to discharge the water has angered South Korea and China.
"The Pacific Ocean is not Japan's sewers," Zhao Lijian, Chinese foreign ministry representative, said.
South Korea, for its part, said it was considering taking the issue to the international tribunal for the law of the sea.
