About 12 years after the Fukushima nuclear disaster, Japanese officials are preparing to unleash treated radioactive wastewater into the Pacific Ocean. The process is said to ease pressure on over 1,000 storage tanks, freeing up room for other critical cleanup efforts. But, the concept has sparked debate.
This picture was taken on January 20, 2023, and shows the storage tanks for contaminated water at the Tokyo Electric Power Company's (TEPCO) Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Okuma of Fukushima prefecture.
Japan to Release 1.3 Million Tons of Water
According to the Treated Water Portal Site, the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station storage tanks contain 1.3 million tons of water, equal to about 500 Olympic-sized swimming pools. Continuous reactor cooling generates contaminated water regularly. Groundwater contamination has also accumulated in the basements of the destroyed reactor buildings.
The multi-nuclide removal equipment called Advanced Liquid Processing System (ALPS) is used to remove radioactive compounds from polluted water, and the resulting ALPS-treated water is kept in tanks.
As per Science Alert, the ALPS treatment can be repeated as often as necessary until the concentrations are below regulatory limits. The IAEA will conduct independent monitoring to ensure all conditions are completed before release.
Tritium, a radioactive form of hydrogen (H) that is difficult to extract from water (H2O), is the principal radioactive pollutant that remains after treatment. There is currently no method available to remove trace amounts of tritium from this volume of water.
The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission said that Tritium has a half-life of 12.3 years, so it will take about 100 years before the radioactivity becomes negligible. Scientists wrote in the article in The Conversation that it is unrealistic to wait for that long to store the water due to its significant volume, increasing the risk of accidental uncontrolled release.
Tritium, like other radioactive elements, has international regulations for acceptable amounts. They are measured in Becquerel (Bq) per liter for liquids, where one Bq is equal to one radioactive decay per second.
The Japanese authorities have established a cautious concentration level of 1,500 Bq per liter at the site of release. Meanwhile, the World Health Organization's (WHO) limit is up to 10,000 Bq per liter, which means it would be seven times smaller than the recommended amount.
READ ALSO: 4 Most Radioactive Places In The World: Where Are They Located?
Is It Safe to Release Radioactive Wastewater Into the Ocean?
At face value, Japan's plan to release radioactive wastewater into the Pacific Ocean sounds terrible. As the authors wrote in The Conversation, one of the worries is the possibility of it changing human DNA.
Moreover, China and South Korea have expressed their protests against the plan, as well as Pacific Island nations concerned about the Blue Pacific's nuclear contamination.
However, the Japanese government, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and independent scientists said that the plan is reasonable and safe. They explained that radiation is very common and present in the air, water, and plants. Even being onboard an airline flight supplies some radiation to everyone on board.
In the Pacific Ocean, it contains around 3,000PBq (8.4 kilograms) already. But the Fukushima wastewater's total tritium only amounts to around 1PBq (3 grams).
Japan also noted that they are not planning to release the water simultaneously and will schedule just 22TBq (0.06 grams) annually. They argue that this amount is just a drop compared to the radiation in the ocean, so it will not cause any harm.
RELATED ARTICLE: Japan's Fukushima Wastewater Will Slowly Be Released to the Pacific Ocean Over the Next Decades
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