Inspenet, July 6, 2023.
While Japan claims that wastewater containing a radioactive compound called tritium will be safe, neighboring countries and other experts say it poses an environmental threat.
Could Japan’s plan lead to a nuclear disaster?
Japan recently announced its plan to begin dumping radioactive wastewater from the Fukushima nuclear power plant into the Pacific Ocean. To carry out this process, the plant operator has started tests in the new facilities built for said discharge.
To assuage criticism, the Japanese government claims that the Advanced Liquid Processing System (ALPS) will remove most radioactive materials from wastewater, leaving only tritium before releasing it into the ocean.
According to scientists, tritium cannot be completely removed from wastewater , but its radiation is very weak, indicating that it will not have a significant impact on the marine environment or human health in the Asia-Pacific region and beyond.
Japan’s plan to dump the radioactive wastewater has received backing from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) , the United Nations’ nuclear body. The IAEA has stated that the plan meets international standards and that its environmental and health impact will be minimal.
However, groups in South Korea, China and some Pacific island states oppose the plan, both for security concerns and for political reasons. Local fishing organizations fear this will damage their reputation, even though their products are not contaminated.
Notably, this announcement comes twelve years after the Fukushima disaster, when a devastating tsunami hit the east coast of Japan, causing the nuclear plant’s safety systems to fail.
Although the plant’s security system responded adequately to the earthquake at the time, unlike Chernobyl in 1986, waves about fifty feet high struck the plant and caused flooding that led to nuclear meltdowns and the release of large amounts of radioactive contamination.
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