A build-up of an immense amount of contaminated water is being stored at Japan’s Fukushima power plant. Now, the government has to decide what to do with it all. A panel of experts advised the Japanese officials to release the treated radioactive water into either the air or the ocean, preferably the latter.
The committee said:
“Compared to evaporation, ocean release can be done more securely.”
This advice comes after three years of serious consideration. Space is running out at the site where the water is being housed in hundreds of tanks. More are being built, but even those are expected to be filled by the end of 2022. This has sparked an increasing sense of urgency over the matter. Nagoya University professor Emeritus Ichiro Yamamoto, who is the head of the committee of experts, still needs to confirm this recommendation and submit it to the government.
In 2011, the TEPCO-operated nuclear plant suffered a meltdown when an earthquake-triggered tsunami hit it. Ever since, they’ve been collecting any water that flows through the site—such as water used for cooling tanks, as well as rain and groundwater that seeps into the plant every day.
Tokyo Electric filters the water extensively to remove the 62 radioactive elements it contains. However, the company admitted in 2018 that its filtration system has not been able to remove all the radioactive particles from the water. Tritium—an isotope of hydrogen that is more difficult to separate from water—remains. They say that tritium is relatively harmless and only dangerous in enormous quantities.
A University of Portsmouth Professor of Environmental Science, Jim Smith, told Newsweek:
“As long as the tritium-contaminated water is properly diluted in seawater, it will present no risk of significant accumulation in marine organisms. Tritium is a very weak emitter of beta radiation and it would take extremely high concentrations to cause potential health effects to marine organisms or people. Other countries worldwide, including the UK and France, have in the past released relatively large amounts of tritium to the marine system with no evidence of significant environmental impacts.”
Officials will likely consult with fishers and local authorities. Many activists, residents, farmers, and fishers worry and fiercely oppose the release of the water into the sea. Nobody knows when the decision will be made, but it is expected that no ruling on this sensitive subject will occur before Tokyo hosts the Olympics this summer.
