China on Friday expressed concern over the release of radioactive water from Japan’s crippled nuclear power plant and urged its neighbour to protect the marine environment

China on Friday expressed concern over the release of radioactive water from Japan's crippled nuclear power plant and urged its neighbour to protect the marine environment.
  
"As a neighbour of Japan's, it is natural for us to express concern," foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei said in a statement published on his ministry's website. "We hope Japan acts in line with international laws and takes effective steps to protect the marine environment."
  
Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) this week began dumping 11,500 tonnes of radioactive water into the sea from its Fukushima Daiichi power plant on Japan's east coast. The facility's cooling systems were knocked out by the March 11 quake and tsunami, causing radiation to leak out in the world's worst nuclear accident in a quarter-century.
  
The operation is aimed at freeing up urgently needed storage space for water so toxic that it is hampering crucial repair work. The Chinese statement repeated an earlier request that Japan convey news on the situation to China "in a timely, comprehensive and precise manner".
  
The Japan nuclear disaster has sparked concern over radiation contamination in China, briefly causing panic-buying of salt in the mistaken belief that the iodine it contained could ward off the effects of radiation. Chinese authorities have said low levels of radiation in the air had been detected across the country and had been found on spinach grown in some parts of northern China including Beijing.
  
But the government has consistently stressed that the amounts involved were far too low to pose a health hazard. The dumping of the water has angered Japan's fishing industry. On Wednesday, Ikuhiro Hattori, the head of Japan Fisheries Cooperatives, visited the company's headquarters to protest.