Japan to release 1m tonnes of contaminated Fukushima water into the sea – reports

[Saiyan0321]

Japan to release 1m tonnes of contaminated Fukushima water into the sea – reports​

Local media say release could begin in 2022 and would take decades to complete, but local fishermen say move will destroy their industry

’s government has reportedly decided to release more than 1m tonnes of contaminated water from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant into the sea, setting it on a collision course with local fishermen who say the move will destroy their industry.
Media reports said work to release the water, which is being stored in more than 1,000 tanks, would begin in 2022 at the earliest and would take decades to complete.
An official decision could come by the end of the month, the Kyodo news agency said, ending years of debate over what to do with the water, with other options including evaporation or the construction of more storage tanks at other sites.


The government, however, has long indicated it prefers the option of releasing it into the nearby Pacific, despite opposition from local fishermen who say it will undo years of work rebuilding their industry’s reputation since the plant was wrecked by a huge tsunami in March 2011.
In response, the government has said it will promote Fukushima produce and address concerns among fishermen that consumers will shun their seafood once the water is released.
Environmental groups also oppose the move, while neighbouring South Korea, which still bans seafood imports from the region, has repeatedly voiced concern, claiming that discharging the water represented a ”grave threat” to the marine environment.
Pressure to decide the water’s fate has been building as storage space on the nuclear plant site runs out, with the plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco), estimating all of the available tanks will be full by the summer of 2022.
As of last month, 1.23m tonnes of water, which becomes contaminated when it mixes with water used to prevent the three damaged reactor cores from melting, were being stored in 1,044 tanks, with the amount of waste water increasing by 170 tonnes a day.
Tepco’s Advanced Liquid Processing System removes highly radioactive substances from the water but the system is unable to filter out tritium, a radioactive isotope of hydrogen that nuclear power plants routinely dilute and dump along with water into the ocean.

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Japan to release 1m tonnes of contaminated Fukushima water into the sea – reports

Local media say release could begin in 2022 and would take decades to complete, but local fishermen say move will destroy their industry

www.theguardian.com

This dooesnt look like a good idea to me on environmental terms.

 

[Saithan]

What to Do with Radioactive Water from Fukushima

Japanese officials are trying to decide what to do with thousands of tons of radioactive water from the damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant. More than six years have passed since a powerful earthquake and tsunami severely damaged the power plant.

learningenglish.voanews.com

It seems most of the radioactive waste has been filtered from the water, and only tritium is left, which is a radioactive form of hydrogen.

Problem is, they seem to still need water to cool the reactor, which means the reactor is still an existing problem.

Fukushima cleanup struggle focuses on what to do with contaminated water - Bellona.org

Nine years after the Fukushima disaster shook the world, one of the biggest impediments to cleaning up the site in Northeastern Japan is coming from an unexpected source: The water.

bellona.org