Fukushima: Why is Japan releasing water and is it safe?
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[August 24, 2023]
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan began pumping more than a million
metric tons of treated radioactive water from the destroyed Fukushima
Daiichi nuclear power plant on Thursday, a process that will take
decades to complete.
The water was distilled after being contaminated from contact with fuel
rods at the reactor, destroyed in a 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
Tanks on the site hold about 1.3 million tons of the water - enough to
fill 500 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
WHAT IS JAPAN'S WATER RELEASE PLAN?
The utility responsible for the plant, Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco), has
been filtering the contaminated water to remove isotopes, leaving only
tritium, a radioactive isotope of hydrogen that is hard to separate.
Tepco will dilute the water until tritium levels fall below regulatory
limits before pumping it into the sea from the site on the coast north
of Tokyo.
Water containing tritium is routinely released from nuclear plants
around the world, and regulatory authorities support dealing with the
Fukushima water in this way.
Tritium is considered to be relatively harmless because its radiation is
not energetic enough to penetrate human skin. When ingested at levels
above those in the released water it can raise cancer risks, a
Scientific American article said in 2014.
The water disposal will take decades to complete alongside the planned
decommissioning of the plant.
IS THE WATER SAFE?
Japan and scientific organizations say the water is safe, but
environmental activists argue that all possible impacts have not been
studied. Japan says it needs to start releasing the water as storage
tanks are full.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the U.N. nuclear
watchdog, gave the plan a green light in July, saying it met
international standards and the impact on people and the environment
would be "negligible".
Greenpeace said on Tuesday that the radiological risks have not been
fully assessed, and the biological impacts of tritium, carbon-14,
strontium-90 and iodine-129 - to be released with the water - "have been
ignored".
The filtering process will remove strontium-90 and iodine-129, and the
concentration of carbon-14 in the contaminated water is far lower than
its regulatory standard for discharge, according to Tepco and the
government.
Japan said tritium levels in the water will be below those considered
safe for drinking under World Health Organization standards.
The government said in a document it would take "appropriate measures,
including immediate suspension of the discharge" if unusually high
concentrations of radioactive materials were detected.
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An activist poses for a photograph
during a protest against Japan's plan to release treated wastewater
from the Fukushima nuclear power plant into the ocean, at the
national assembly in Seoul, South Korea, August 24, 2023.
REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji
The South Korean government has concluded from its own study that
the water release meets international standards and said it
respected the IAEA assessment.
HOW HAVE PEOPLE REACTED?
Tepco has been engaging with fishing communities and other concerned
groups and is promoting agriculture, fishery and forest products to
reduce any reputational harm to produce from the area.
Fishing unions in Fukushima have urged the government for years not
to release the water, arguing it would undo work to restore the
damaged reputation of their fisheries.
Masanobu Sakamoto, the head of the National Federation of Fisheries
Cooperative Associations, said on Monday the group understood the
release could be scientifically safe but still feared reputational
damage.
Neighboring countries have also expressed concern. China has been
the most vocal, calling Japan's plan irresponsible, unpopular and
unilateral. China is the biggest importer of Japanese seafood.
Shortly after the 2011 tsunami and earthquake damaged the Fukushima
plant, China banned imports of food and agricultural products from
five Japanese prefectures. China later widened its ban to 10 of
Japan's 47 prefectures.
The latest import restrictions were imposed in July after the IAEA
approved Japan's plans to discharge the treated water.
WHAT WAS THE FUKUSHIMA DISASTER?
On March 11, 2011, a magnitude 9.0 quake hit off the coast of
northeast Japan, triggering a tsunami that devastated towns and
villages and sparked the world's worst nuclear accident since
Chernobyl.
The tsunami swamped backup power and cooling systems at the
Fukushima plant, eventually causing meltdowns at three of six
reactors. More than 160,000 people were eventually evacuated from
the area.
A commission appointed by parliament later concluded that Fukushima
was a "profoundly man-made disaster" that could have been prevented,
and mitigated by a more effective response.
(Reporting by Tokyo Newsroom, editing by Katya Golubkova, Robert
Birsel)
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