Opposition Grows Against Japan’s Plan to Discharge Nuclear Polluted Water Into the Sea: Cost vs Harm

According to a local media report in Fukushima, Japan on June 9, the Tokyo Electric Power Company announced that the land discharge facility of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant’s nuclear polluted water discharge project will be completed within this week, and trial operation will begin on the 12th of this month. .

The Japanese government has proposed five plans to deal with nuclear-contaminated water

All circles of public opinion firmly oppose the Japanese government’s plan to discharge sewage into the sea. One of the reasons is that there are no other ways to dispose of nuclear-contaminated water, and other ways may be more effective and reduce pollution. It is understood that the Japanese government has previously proposed five options, among which the cost of discharging into the sea is the lowest.

At present, the nuclear-contaminated water of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant is all stored in the storage tanks of the nuclear power plant. The Japanese government has previously proposed five options for how to deal with the nuclear-contaminated water: discharge it into the sea, turn it into water vapor and discharge it into the atmosphere, and discharge it into the atmosphere along the coast. It is discharged into the depths of the ground through underground pipelines, electrolyzed, and solidified into the ground.

Among the five options, discharging nuclear-contaminated water into the sea is the cheapest, estimated to cost 1.7 billion to 3.4 billion yen, or about 102 million to 203 million yuan; and the most expensive way is to solidify it It is estimated that the cost of burying it in the ground is dozens or even hundreds of times that of discharging it into the sea.

Previously, TEPCO had stated that most of the radioactive substances in nuclear-contaminated water could be removed after purification, but the radioactive substance “tritium” could not be removed.

In view of the fact that the Japanese government and Tepco have concealed the handling of nuclear accidents and the discharge of pollutants, there are widespread concerns about the possible negative impact of nuclear-contaminated water entering the sea on the surrounding marine ecological environment and fishery resources.

The cost of discharging sewage into the sea is the lowest but the harm is far-reaching

The Japanese government and TEPCO have always claimed that the discharged water is safe and safe. Is this true? Many Japanese scholars have made tit-for-tat criticisms.

Naoaki Shibazaki, Professor of Fukushima University, Japan:Even treated water still contains radioactive substances that exceed the standard, some only exceed the standard by a little, and some may contain high concentrations of radioactive substances that exceed the standard by more than a hundred times.

Professor Ryota Koyama, Fukushima University, Japan:If nuclear contaminated water is discharged, I think there must be problems.

Experts said that the Japanese scientific community and non-governmental organizations have successively proposed various more reasonable proposals to the Japanese government and Tokyo Electric Power Company, but none of them have been taken seriously.

Kawai Yasushi, member of Japan Atomic Energy Citizens Committee, Japanese chemical engineer:Concrete pits can be dug underground, and then the nuclear contaminated water can be solidified with mortar. Mortar is placed in a concrete pit and hardens over time and is no longer fluid. But it must not be put into the ocean. After the mortar solidifies, the radioactivity will decay after hundreds or thousands of years. It is almost harmless. This is a very good idea.

In addition to the mortar curing plan, the Atomic Power Citizens Committee has also proposed other plans to Tepco, such as adding storage tanks and continuing to store nuclear contaminated water. However, it is extremely irresponsible for the Japanese government to ignore the more feasible nuclear-contaminated water treatment plan and choose the sea discharge plan with the lowest cost and the greatest harm.

Kawai Yasushi, member of Japan Atomic Energy Citizens Committee, Japanese chemical engineer:The discharge of nuclear contaminated water into the sea is the pollution of the ocean. Not only tritium, but also various nuclear substances will flow into the sea. If they flow into the sea, they will be enriched in fish or seaweed, endangering human health.

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