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The Japanese government plans to discharge 1.3 million tons of contaminated water from the Fukushima nuclear power plant into the Pacific Ocean starting this spring.
As this contaminated water is the water that cooled the accident reactor, there are great concerns about its safety.
So, the Japanese side initially said that it would measure 64 types of radioactive substances in the contaminated water and release it after confirming that it was safe.
However, it was recently revealed that the Japanese side informed the Korean government of a plan to exclude more than half of these 64 radioactive materials from measurement in bulk.
First, this is reporter Son Ha-neul’s exclusive report.
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These are huge water tanks piled up inside the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan.
More than 1,000 water tanks are filled with 1.3 million tons of radioactive water used to cool the accident reactor.
The Japanese government plans to remove and dilute the radioactive material as much as possible with equipment called ‘ALPS’ and release it into the Pacific Ocean starting this year.
To allay concerns from neighboring countries like Korea, Japan said it would thoroughly measure and disclose radiation levels.
Tokyo Electric Power, which operates the Fukushima nuclear power plant, has also created a Korean website to promote it.
The type of radioactive material to be measured is tritium, 62 types of radioactive materials, plus carbon 14, and a total of 64 types have been revealed.
However, recently, the Japanese side has informed the Korean government of a plan to drastically reduce the number of substances to be measured from 64 to 31.
The plan is to measure only 31 species by removing 37 species, including strontium, tellurium and rubidium, and adding 4 new ones.
Japan informed Korea of this plan at a Korea-Japan director-general-level meeting held on December 22 last year.
TEPCO also attended the meeting, explaining that it “excludes substances that are unlikely to be present in contaminated water due to their short half-life.”
But experts interviewed by MBC are concerned.
[아르준 마키자니 박사/태평양도서국포럼 과학자 패널]
″Japan must continue to maintain monitoring capabilities for accidental fission reactions. At this point, just a few months before release, I don’t know why the promised plan is changed.”
Japan’s release of contaminated water into the Pacific Ocean will begin in April at the earliest.
This is Son Ha-neul from MBC News.
Video coverage: Seo Doo-beom / Video editing: Shin Jae-ran / Data provided: Lee Jae-jeong’s office
