Unable to handle the nuclear polluted water from the Fukushima plant, Japan decided it would be discharged into the sea

Tram Ho

The first discharge will take place in about two years, giving the plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) time to start purifying water to remove harmful isotopes, and build infrastructure. floor and get regulatory approval.

Japan has argued that flushing was necessary to accelerate the plant’s complicated shutdown after it was paralyzed by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami, simultaneously indicating that the water was purified. Self is also routinely discharged from nuclear plants around the world.

Nearly 1.3 million tons of polluted water, equivalent to enough water to fill about 500 Olympic-sized swimming pools, has been stored in giant reservoirs at the Fukushima Daiichi plant at an annual cost of about 912, $ 66 million – and that space is running out.

Không thể xử lý nổi nước ô nhiễm hạt nhân từ nhà máy Fukushima, Nhật Bản quyết định sẽ xả ra biển - Ảnh 1.

The polluted wastewater tanks are viewed from the air.

“On the basis of strict adherence to the established regulatory standards, we opt for ocean release , the government said in a statement, adding that the project would take decades to complete. finish.

The decision comes about three months before the postponed Olympic Games last year were reorganized this year, with some events just 60 kilometers from the factory. Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe assured the International Olympic Committee in 2013 that Fukushima “would never cause any damage to Tokyo”.

Tepco plans to filter contaminated water to remove the isotope leaving only tritium, a radioactive isotope of hydrogen that is difficult to separate from the water. Tepco will then dilute the water until the level of tritium drops below the specified limit, before pumping it out into the ocean.

Tritium is considered relatively harmless because it does not emit enough energy to penetrate human skin, and other nuclear plants around the world routinely pump low isotope water into the oceans.

Japan’s ally the United States has voiced support and noted that Japan has worked closely with the International Atomic Energy Agency in handling the site since the three-way reactor crisis. here a decade.

“In this unique and challenging situation, Japan has considered its options and impact, is transparent about its decision and seems to have adopted an approach consistent with nuclear safety standards. is accepted globally, “ the State Department said in a statement on its website.

However, opponents of the plan are still concerned about potential levels of tritium or other contaminants.

Korea expressed “serious concern that this decision could have a direct and indirect impact on the safety of its people and our surroundings.” The country urged Japan to provide more information on the planned discharge of water and said it would promote radioactive measurement and monitoring with its own method.

“It will be difficult to accept if Japan decides to discharge the polluted water without full consultation,” the government said in a statement. China and Taiwan have also expressed concerns.

Không thể xử lý nổi nước ô nhiễm hạt nhân từ nhà máy Fukushima, Nhật Bản quyết định sẽ xả ra biển - Ảnh 2.

Unable to control the radioactive polluted wastewater, Japan decided to discharge them into the sea.

The fishing unions in Fukushima have urged the government for years not to discharge polluted water into the sea, arguing it would have a “catastrophic impact” on the industry.

A 2014 Scientific American article reported that ingestion of tritium may increase cancer risk, while some experts worry about other contaminants.

“My concern is that non-tritium radioactive contaminants remain in high-level reservoirs,” said Ken Buesseler, a senior scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in Massachusetts .

Buesseler, who has studied the waters around Fukushima, said: “These other pollutants all have a greater risk of effects than tritium and more easily accumulate in seafood and seabed sediments.”

Refer to Reuters

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Source : Genk