Three South Korean nuclear safety experts left for Japan on Sunday to monitor the release of contaminated water from the crippled Fukushima plant, an official said.
The experts from the Korea Institute of Nuclear Safety plan to visit the Fukushima office of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN nuclear watchdog, South Korea's news agency (Yonhap) quoted the official as saying.
The visit comes after South Korea, Japan and the IAEA reached an agreement on South Korean experts visiting the IAEA office every two weeks to examine the discharge of the contaminated water.
Japan began releasing the treated radioactive water from the Fukushima power plant into the ocean Thursday, despite concerns in South Korea and China about its potential impact on people's health and the environment.
Seoul has said it sees no scientific or technical problems with Tokyo's discharge plan.
Meanwhile, Japan's Environment Ministry announced that the radiation levels of the first samples of seawater collected by the Ministry since the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant began to release treated water were below detectable limits, it said Sunday.
Based on the analysis of seawater sampled Friday morning, the concentrations of tritium -- a radioactive material that cannot be removed even after the treatment of contaminated water generated at the Fukushima plant -- were at levels that "would have no adverse impact on human health and the environment," the ministry said.
