The Japanese government’s decision to discharge the accumulated nuclear wastewater from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant into the sea after two years of dilution has drawn fierce opposition from China and South Korea. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian angrily chided that “the ocean is not a garbage can for Japan. But according to the Hong Kong media, China’s 49 existing nuclear power plants also discharge nuclear wastewater into the sea. Among them, the closest to Hong Kong is the Daya Bay nuclear power plant, where the emission limit of radioactive material “tritium” is even 10 times higher than the emission standard of Fukushima in Japan.
The Global Times quoted unnamed “analysts” as saying that Japan has chosen this time to make the decision, and has the support of the United States, so it cannot be ruled out that some kind of deal has been reached with the United States privately. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian even bombarded, “the ocean is not Japan’s garbage can, and the Pacific Ocean is not Japan’s sewer”, “as for the individual Japanese officials who said ‘it’s okay to drink this water’, please ask him to drink it. “
The Japanese government explained on the 13th, the Fukushima nuclear power plant wastewater after treatment, will mainly contain a radioactive material called “tritium”. After dilution, the annual discharge of up to 22 megabecks of liquid tritium, the concentration will also be diluted to 1,500 becquerels per liter, which is the WHO can be drinking water tritium content standard 1/7.
According to the Hong Kong “News” 14 disclosure, China’s Daya Bay nuclear wastewater emissions cap and actual emissions exceed the standards of Japan’s Fukushima.
By the end of last year, China had 16 nuclear power plants, with a total of 49 nuclear units in operation, the newspaper said. Hong Kong alone has four nuclear power plants within a 200-kilometer radius: Daya Bay, Lingao, Taishan and Yangjiang. How much nuclear waste water is discharged each year? The authorities do not disclose the overall figure.
However, according to a 2017 approval from the Chinese Communist Party’s Ministry of Ecology and Environment, the Daya Bay nuclear power site, with six units, has an annual liquid tritium emission limit of 225 megabecks, 10 times the future annual emissions from Fukushima.
According to a 2017 approval from the Communist Party’s Ministry of Ecology and Environment, the Daya Bay nuclear power site, with six units, has an annual liquid tritium emissions cap of 225 megabecks, 10 times the future annual emissions from Fukushima.
Also according to the Hong Kong Nuclear Investment Corporation (HKNIC), liquid tritium emissions from the Daya Bay nuclear power plant have averaged 20% of the cap, or about 49.5 megabecks, over the past 10 years. If compared with the standard set by the Japanese government, this exceeds the limit by more than a factor of one.
In addition, in 2008, the Qinshan nuclear power plant in Zhejiang Province requested the Ministry of Ecology and the Environment to set a standard for the annual discharge of nuclear wastewater, and for the first two phases and the expanded units alone, the upper limit of liquid tritium emissions reached 125 megabecks, more than five times the current emissions set by Fukushima. According to public documents, the Chinese Communist Party’s National Nuclear Safety Administration replied that this amount was acceptable and was approved. The emission limit for the Fujian Fuqing nuclear power plant also exceeds the Fukushima standard.
Wen Zhaoge, host of the self-published “Wen Zhaoge Talks About the Past and Present,” commented on this issue, saying that in fact, under normal conditions without an accident, China’s nuclear power plants emit radioactive substances into the atmosphere and water, and the so-called normal standard is even higher than Japan’s harmful standard, so why is the CCP’s reaction so intense and high-profile this time? He believes there are two reasons.
One is to hype up the topic to divert attention, by banging the gong to tell everyone that “the world is as black as a crow”, to hedge against the pressure from the outside world to hold the CCP accountable on the epidemic, “Now there are more urgent environmental problems, why don’t you go and urge the Japanese government to be responsible?”
Second, now that Sino-Japanese relations are tense, this incident is used to make things difficult for Japan, and also to increase the bargaining chip for future Sino-Japanese negotiations by asking Japan to make more concessions in other areas on the grounds that the Chinese side has given in on this matter.
But on the other hand, Wen Zhaoge believes that this matter of speculation also has a positive effect, that is, under the high level of external attention, the parties will be more stringent supervision, which is good for the health of the Japanese people.
Recent Comments