Fukushima: spillage of water from the accident sparks controversy – 7/5/2023 – Environment

After the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) approved the Japanese plan to dump into the sea the water from the nuclear power plant that suffered an accident 12 years ago, it was up to the director of the institution to try to reassure the residents of the region. Rafael Grossi met, this Wednesday (5), with the population of Fukushima.

The IAEA approved the disposal of 1.33 million cubic meters of contaminated water after adequate treatment. The water is stored in the plant that was affected by the earthquake and tsunami that occurred on March 11, 2011.

On Tuesday (4), the UN nuclear agency said the project follows international standards and will have a “negligible impact” on the population and the environment.

The Argentine Rafael Grossi repeated the message in Iwaki, 60 kilometers from the central, where despite the reassuring speech, the restlessness persists. “All the complex graphs and statistics are one thing, but people’s realities, economic realities, social sentiment and perceptions can be different,” Grossi admitted to residents and officials in attendance.

According to experts, water treatment eliminates most radioisotopes, with the exception of tritium (an isotope of hydrogen). Project coordinators claim that the liquid that will be dumped into the ocean for decades is no different from what is poured by a conventional nuclear power plant.

However, neighboring countries such as China and South Korea, organizations that defend the environment and some residents of the region, particularly fishermen, are against the plan.

Tetsu Nozaki, president of the Fukushima Cooperative Fisheries Federation, said the Japanese government was misinterpreting local sentiment, which he said was strongly opposed to the project.

“The fishermen’s concern is not the amount of radiation and the health risk, but it is above all a question of image”, explains Jean-Christophe Gariel, deputy administrative director responsible for the Health-Environment division of the Institute of Radioprotection and Nuclear Safety.

In an interview with the RFI news agency, the expert points out that “the fishermen are suffering from the consequences of the Fukushima accident and the ban on fishing for ten years and just now, when they start to resume activity, comes the announcement of the dumping of that water “.

However, Gariel also warns that the plant no longer has space to continue storing this waste. “The consequence on the environment will be the same as when the reactor was in operation”, he concludes.

In front of the residents, Grossi defended that the role of the IAEA was not to “hide something bad”. The plan is “generally accepted and observed practice in many locations around the world,” he said.

Other reactions

In South Korea, a country that has registered protests against the Japanese plan and where polls show that 80% of the population is concerned about the project, a senior government official, Park Ku-yeon, said that Seoul respects the position of the IAEA, but that it will not issue its final opinion until the completion of the independent review commissioned by the Executive.

China, for its part, reacted more energetically: the Ministry of Foreign Affairs considers that “the IAEA report is not in a position to give legitimacy to the Japanese plan”.

“Japan has unilaterally decided to dump its spent nuclear water into the ocean. It minimizes its own costs and risks by letting the rest of the world bear the inevitable risk of nuclear contamination,” said Chinese diplomatic spokesman Wang Wenbin.

Faced with fears, Japan began a campaign to try to convince the most skeptical, before starting the execution of the project.

The Fukushima Daiichi plant, where the cores of three reactors merged after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami, generates 100,000 liters of contaminated water a day.

The plant’s operator, Tepco (Tokyo Electric Power), treats and stores the mixture of groundwater, rainwater and cooling water from the plant itself on site. However, after accumulating 1.33 million cubic meters of water, the deposits are practically saturated.

Thus, Tepco and the Japanese government announced the plan —endorsed by the IAEA— to dump the treated liquid, diluted with seawater, into the ocean through a one-kilometer pipeline.

In addition to the IAEA, several experts defended the measure announced by the Japanese government. “It’s a robust plan,” said Tony Hooker, associate professor at the Center for Radiation Research, Education and Innovation at the University of Adelaide in Australia. “An environmental or human health impact is unlikely to be observed,” said the expert.

Claims about the risk of the operation “are not based on scientific evidence,” agrees Jim Smith, professor of environmental science at the University of Portsmouth in England.

(With information from AFP)