Japan has a radioactive waste problem - more than 1.3 billion litres of radioactive water that has been used to cool the wreck of the Fukushima nuclear reactors. This Fukushima water (Fuku-water) is now stored on-site in tanks (Fig.1).The Fuku-water has been accumulated by Japan over the past 12 years - since three nuclear reactors of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant “went into meltdown” in 2011; there are now more than 1.3 million tonnes of contaminated water (circa 1.3 billion litres).There is a proposal that Japan will ‘dispose’ of its Fuku-water problem by pumping it into the Pacific Ocean over forthcoming decades . There is pushback to this plan from Japan’s fishing communities, and neighbours, including China, South Korea, North Korea, and island nations of the Pacific

It is incumbent on Japan to nationalise, not globalise, its Fuku-water problem. Japan needs to solve its nuclear waste problem at its own expense, on its own territory, and now - and not at the expense of the world and for generations to come. For Japan to use the world's oceans as a dumping ground for its radioactive waste stockpile creates a dreadful precedent. We need to protect the oceans - not to use them as a convenient and free radioactive waste dump.