Japan forces nuclear contaminated water to be discharged into the sea, Fukushima’s revitalization is far away – International Online
At about 1 pm on August 24 this year, amid strong domestic and international opposition, Japan’s Tokyo Electric Power Company officially launched a plan to discharge nuclear contaminated water from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant into the sea. So far, a total of more than 20,000 tons of nuclear-contaminated water has flowed into the Pacific Ocean after three rounds of discharge. How will the nuclear-contaminated water discharge plan pushed by TEPCO and the Japanese government affect the lives of local residents in Fukushima? The Japanese government has vowed to revitalize the Fukushima economy, but what is its effect?
Starting in the summer of 2023, local people in Fukushima who protested against the government’s sea discharge established a “tent village” on the Qihu coast near the discharge port of nuclear contaminated water, and organized sit-ins, rallies and other anti-sea discharge activities. Local protests continue to this day.
Masami Yoshizawa, 69, is a resident of Namie Town, Fukushima Prefecture. Before the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011, he ran a ranch in Namie Town. Natural disasters and nuclear accidents took away his originally peaceful life. He and the villagers had hoped that Tokyo Electric Power Company and the Japanese government would properly handle the aftermath of the disaster. matters. However, more than ten years later, what Fukushima residents were waiting for was the Japanese government forcibly launching a plan to discharge nuclear-contaminated water into the sea. Masami Yoshizawa said that he would no longer believe anything said by TEPCO and the Japanese government. “Nuclear contaminated water is euphemistically called treated (treated) water, but it is actually not safe. (It is unreasonable to say that dangerous things are diluted (after being safe).) The Japanese government’s response to nuclear accidents After the policy was announced, I decided not to listen to them anymore.”
After the Japanese government announced the launch of a plan to discharge nuclear-contaminated water into the sea, Masami Yoshizawa went fishing at the beach of Namie Town almost every day and sent the fish he caught for testing at his own expense. He wanted to know the true impact of nuclear-contaminated water on the ocean. “I sent the fish I caught to relevant agencies for testing, but they only tested for cesium. In fact, there are more than 60 problematic radioactive elements. Only testing for cesium is not reassuring.”
Before the Fukushima nuclear leakage accident, Namie Town had a permanent population of 21,500 people. It was also a town with a large population around the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant. Now, as many as 20,000 people have chosen not to return to their hometowns. Although Fukushima Prefecture claimed that it had carried out large-scale radioactive contamination removal work in the radiation area of the nuclear leakage accident, when TEPCO and the Japanese government ignored the opposition of the villagers and forcibly launched the nuclear-contaminated water discharge plan, the villagers completely Lost confidence in returning home.
Seeing the massive loss of population and the slow decline of his hometown, Hideki Ishii, a seafood processor in Fukushima Prefecture, felt worried. He said that the sea discharge plan has had a serious impact on the local aquatic product processing industry, sales and transportation industry, and the villagers’ persistence here for many years has resulted in a gloomy future and another injury. “It took us ten years to gradually recover to where we are now. Discharging nuclear-contaminated water brings us back to where we started. This concern is very strong. We have been opposing it, but the government has turned a deaf ear to our voices. , we are very angry.”
Iwaki City in Fukushima Prefecture was once a famous surfing spot in Japan. After the nuclear accident, the overcrowding during the tourist season was gone forever. Local people involved in the tourism and surfing industries criticized TEPCO and the Japanese government’s plan to discharge nuclear-contaminated water into the sea, which has worsened the already depressed industry.
Also angry were the construction workers at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. Recently, a gentleman who did not want to be identified held a lecture in the Kanto region of Japan, telling how he went to participate in the construction of a nuclear power plant after the nuclear leakage accident and suffered from leukemia due to long-term exposure to nuclear radiation. He said that although he was recognized as a work-related injury by the Japanese government, he was still waiting for compensation from TEPCO. “Seven years have passed since the beginning of the lawsuit. There has been no result in the first trial, and the oral argument session of the lawsuit has been conducted 23 times. In Japan’s relevant compensation laws involving nuclear energy, the Japanese government and relevant power companies should make corresponding compensation. system, but TEPCO said, ‘Although you have leukemia and have been recognized as a work-related injury, the disease is due to your own fault and cannot be compensated.'”
The victim said that there may be workers like him who suffer from leukemia or other diseases on the job. He hopes that Tepco and the Japanese government can take responsibility and properly solve the various remaining problems of the Fukushima nuclear leakage.
In fact, there are still many cases of diseases caused by the Fukushima nuclear accident. In January last year, six Japanese people who had lived in Fukushima filed a class action lawsuit with the Tokyo District Court, seeking compensation from TEPCO on the grounds that they “suffered from thyroid cancer due to the impact of radioactive materials caused by the Fukushima nuclear accident.” The lawsuit also sparked widespread public support.
Twelve years have passed since the Fukushima nuclear accident, but TEPCO and the Japanese government have always had many problems in dealing with the aftermath. On this basis, the forced push for a plan to discharge nuclear-contaminated water into the sea has made Fukushima residents invisible. Future: It is still difficult for disaster victims to return home. Many local industries have been slow to recover, and the health of residents has been directly threatened.
Although the Japanese government has promised to take measures to ensure the development of the local economy in Fukushima during the future sea discharge process, Fukushima University associate professor Lin Xunping believes that the Japanese government should take concrete actions instead of empty slogans, otherwise Fukushima The road to revitalization of the island will be far away. “The Japanese government claims that it will take full responsibility for the revitalization of Fukushima during the sea discharge operation in the next 30 years or more, but how will it do it specifically? We believe that this commitment must have specific content and guarantee plans. For example, In the next 10 or 20 years, (the government) must set specific goals to what level fishery production should be improved to; for example, the local young population is very small, so there must be corresponding plans for how to increase the population in the future.”
Just as local residents of Fukushima are worried, American marine biologist Rick Steiner believes that the Japanese government’s statement is not convincing. The potential threat of nuclear contaminated water will cause many long-term impacts on Fukushima residents. “We know that there will be many different radionuclides in the discharged (nuclear contaminated) water. The domestic treatment system used by Japan cannot reduce the content of these radioactive contaminants to undetectable levels. These contaminants will follow the nuclear Polluted water is discharged into the ocean. The marine food chain will cause biomagnification of these substances. The content of pollutants will be a thousand times higher than the content in environmental water. They will cause cell damage, genetic damage, affect the reproductive system, and can also cause Cell mutations and even cancer.”
Although the potential threat posed by the plan to discharge nuclear-contaminated water into the sea has become very clear, Japan still chose to “dispose of it” despite the opposition of the people of Fukushima and domestic and international public opinion. In this regard, Steiner believes that TEPCO and the Japanese government have adopted the most irresponsible approach in order to save money and trouble. “There are safer alternatives (on the issue of treating nuclear contaminated water), such as building more water storage tanks to continue to store the treated nuclear contaminated water for 10 to 15 years. Every 12 years, the half-life of tritium will decrease Half. In the meantime, state-of-the-art processing systems can reduce these radionuclides to undetectable levels and remove all tritium. The Japanese government and Tepco should at least try both technologies. But The Japanese government doesn’t want to do this because it’s more expensive, so it’s cheaper for them to just dump nuclear contaminated water directly into the Pacific Ocean for the next 20 to 30 years. But in fact, the Japanese government is dumping the cost transferred to Pacific Rim countries.”
[Editor in charge: Peng Yao]
#Japan #forces #discharge #nuclear #contaminated #water #sea #Fukushimas #revitalization #away_China #Net
2023-12-23 08:27:00
