Ten years after the Fukushima nuclear power plant accident in Japan, the treatment of contaminated water from the plant has once again aroused high international attention. Despite opposition from neighboring countries such as China and South Korea, as well as Japan’s domestic fishery and agriculture sectors, the Japanese government on Tuesday still decided on this issue, announcing that more than 1 million tons of contaminated water from the Fukushima nuclear power plant will be filtered and discharged into the sea.
In fact, Japan has been debating this decision for seven years, and the main reason for today’s decision is that the number of water storage tanks in the hinterland of the plant is approaching its limit, and Tokyo has made the decision after considering scientific analysis and domestic and international practices.
In 2011, a powerful earthquake and tsunami hit northeastern Japan, killing 19,000 people and causing the meltdown of three of the six reactors at the Fukushima nuclear power plant, making it the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl in Russia. To ensure that the molten nuclear fuel in the reactors remains stable after the accident, the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant must be continuously filled with water for cooling. This cooling water, together with groundwater and rainwater flowing into the reactors, forms “contaminated water” containing ultra-high concentrations of radioactive substances, which continues to grow at a rate of 140 metric tons per day. There are currently about 1.25 million tons of contaminated water stored in more than 1,000 reservoirs near the nuclear power plant. With the accumulation of nuclear wastewater, Japanese officials expect to reach the limit of the existing storage pools by the fall of 2022.
The stored contaminated water has undergone several purification devices to remove most of the radioactive material, but current technology is still unable to remove a hydrogen radioisotope called tritium, which experts say is only dangerous to humans in very large quantities. The standard for the discharge of tritium-containing water into the sea from a typical Japanese nuclear power plant is less than 60,000 becquerels per liter. Tokyo Electric Power, the operator of the Fukushima nuclear plant, said it would dilute the nuclear wastewater with seawater a hundred times before discharging it to less than 1,500 becquerels per liter of tritium, one-fortieth of Japan’s discharge standard.
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said Tuesday that “the water will not be released into the sea until it is ensured that the tritium content in the water is significantly lower than the safety standard, while assuring that measures will be taken so that the reputation of the region will not be affected.
According to reports, the first release of water from the plant will take place in about two years, and the entire project will take decades to complete.
The report said Japan made the decision about three months before the Olympic Games to be held in Tokyo, where some events are scheduled to take place 60 kilometers from the accident site. Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had assured the International Olympic Committee that Fukushima “would not cause any damage to Tokyo” when he bid to host the Olympics in 2013.
Fukushima’s disposal of contaminated water into the sea has been opposed by many parties, first of all within Japan, where fishermen and farmers are strongly opposed to the disposal proposal, fearing that it will further affect the image of their products among consumers. And indeed, Japan has considered the use of evaporative release or durable storage options. “The disposal of contaminated water is an unavoidable issue in the reconstruction of Fukushima,” Kan said last week after meeting with the head of the Japan Federation of Fisheries Cooperatives. The president of the Fukushima Fisheries Cooperative said Tuesday, “The government told us that the water would not be released without the support of fishermen, but now they are going back to that option, which is unacceptable.”
On the side of environmental groups, World Greenpeace said Tuesday that the Japanese government’s decision was a re-victimization of the people of Fukushima, criticizing it as an unjustified decision to pollute the Pacific Ocean with nuclear waste. Environmental groups have called on Japan to continue storing the wastewater until technology can solve the challenge of completely removing the contaminated material.
Most of Japan’s neighbors have voiced their opposition to Tokyo’s decision. South Korea expressed “deep regret” and “serious concern about the direct and indirect impact the decision may have on the safety of the Korean people and the surrounding environment,” as did China. China’s Foreign Ministry said Tuesday that Japan’s unilateral decision to dispose of nuclear waste water from the Fukushima nuclear power plant accident by discharging it into the sea without full consultation with neighboring countries and the international community is “extremely irresponsible”. It will seriously damage international public health and safety and the vital interests of people in neighboring countries. China urged the Japanese side to re-examine the issue of nuclear wastewater disposal and will reserve the right to react further.
On the Taiwan side, Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed concern through its representative office in Japan and requested that Japan inform Taiwan of the disposal method and provide relevant information two years later as soon as possible to facilitate early response.
But the U.S. government, an ally of Tokyo, expressed support for the Japanese government’s decision, with the U.S. State Department saying in a statement that the practice was in line with globally accepted nuclear safety standards. It also noted that the U.S. is aware that Japan “weighed the options and implications, was transparent in its decision, and appears to have taken an approach that is consistent with international nuclear safety standards.”
AFP reported that the Japanese government’s panel of experts recommended early last year that water be released into the sea, which is now the usual approach for nuclear facilities operating in Japan and internationally. Michiaki Kai, a health and nuclear risk expert at Oita University in Japan, told AFP that “the fact that releasing [treated nuclear wastewater] into the sea has little effect on human health is a consensus in the scientific community.” The International Atomic Energy Agency is also supportive of this issue. A group of experts from the IAEA said in April in a statement on its official website that both steam release and discharge to the sea are technically feasible and are commonly adopted by nuclear power plants around the world under safety and environmental regulations.
Recent Comments