Japan's Environmental Minister Says Dumping Radioactive Water Into Ocean Is Only Option
There is said to be over 1 million tons of contaminated water in Fukushima that needs to be disposed of and authorities say that dumping it into the ocean is the only option available.
There is room to store the liquid until 2022 but after that they are going to run out of space.
Already, South Korea has asked the International Atomic Energy Agency to go ahead and conduct an inspection on-site to determine the extent of the problem with the contaminated water. If they go ahead and dump that into the ocean, it's understandable that they might fear the impact could affect the marine ecosystems in the region of South Korea and other areas.
More than one million tonnes of contaminated water is being held in hundreds of sealed tanks.
According to one member of Korea's Nuclear Safety and Security Commission, K. Ik-jung, dumping that water into the sea could be the most devastating option.
“There is another option to deal with radioactive water,... Japan can keep it in the tanks until the radiation level becomes low enough. But this takes time and money. It will take about 300 years until it is okay to discharge the water.” - K. Ik-jung of Korea’s Nuclear Safety and Security Commission.
It's repeatedly being alleged that the Japanese government doesn't want to pay the full costs of storing and processing that water until all the contaminants have been removed.
The head of the Fukushima prefecture's federation of fisheries cooperatives has made it clear that the fishermen strongly oppose any plans to discharge that contaminated water into the sea where they depend on their livelihood.
Water Isn't Ready To Be Dumped
It's reported that many of the tanks might still have radiation levels that are above government standards for ocean dumping, some have previously been found to have radiation levels 20,000 times greater than their rules dictate as acceptable for ocean dumping.
For now the government has said that they are holding off on making any decision until they receive that report from an expert panel on the matter. Still, time is going to run out eventually and they need to find a solution sooner rather than later.
Many expect though that they are going to go with the quickest and cheapest route of just dumping it into the ocean.
Pics:
pixabay
I've heard glowing reviews about the sushi from this region..
Sorry I use humour to try to maintain my will to live amongst the other humans..
It's not working FYI
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hey when any moment could be the last, i'd rather spend it laughing! ✌️ i could always use more of that👍
Precisely! I'm glad you didn't think I was attempting to distract from this overwhelmingly heinous situation..
I can't help but wonder what radioactive levels are approved to dump in the ocean 🐠?
Living in a land where all grey water flows directly into open air drains that leads straight into the ocean is a difficult enough premise to wrap my head around.. Sigh
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I thought they were already dumping it in the ocean? Or was that the initial leak/leaking causing the massive radiation plume to shoot across the pacific?
yes it has been leaking as well into the ocean for years i believe, but now they are going to dump what has been in the tanks as well?
Either way it’s terrible!
yes i hope they come up with a solution that's best and causes the least amount of disruption to others
Build more tanks would seem to be a better option unless I’m missing something.
If that million tons of water is currently being held in hundreds of tanks, they must be big ones. A million tons of water works out to almost 4,000 Olympic-sized pools.
I supposed they don't have enough space for hundreds or thousands more tanks? they will reach full capacity by 2022, and have said that too many tanks will slow down the decommissioning work. TEPCO has also admitted that to try and get more land in the area it wouldbe very difficult because it would require contract renegotiations with both the government as well as local landowners.
other options for cleanup they are considering:
The international community needs to make a decision based on science.
This article gives us the impression that the IAEA is ignoring the situation and there is some sort of conspiracy to cover up what is going on.
Perhaps more needs to be done, but the IAEA has done a lot of studies on Fukushima and is currently monitoring the contaminated water. There is a lot of information available on its website: https://www.iaea.org/newscenter/focus/fukushima/status-update
It should be mentioned that Korea is engaged in a serious trade war with Japan at the moment. They have a complex history and disagree over many issues. We should be cautious about trusting information coming out of Korea regarding Japan and use non-biased biased sources from 3rd parties.
There are even petitions to cancel the Tokyo 2020 Olympics because Fukushima is dangerous. They will not be having the Olympics next to the power plant.
No one has actually died from Fukushima radiation, they aren't even certain if levels of cancer are elevated. There are many places on earth where people live that have much higher background radiation due to natural causes. You will probably get more radiation on the flight over or from your annual medical check-up.
Again, don't trust me. We need facts from scientists, not opinions from people who are super skeptical about Japan in general.