International environmental experts: Fukushima nuclear contaminated water discharge poses a nuclear threat to the Asia Pacific region | Japan | Environmental protection

Sean Bernie, a senior nuclear expert at the Japan office of the international environmental agency Greenpeace, wrote in China Daily on June 14th that Japan is about to discharge contaminated water from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant into the Pacific, posing a nuclear threat to the Asia Pacific region.

Comic author: Ma Xuejing, China Daily

Japanese authorities fabricate lies to mislead the public

At present, the equipment related to the discharge of contaminated water from Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant into the sea has been basically completed, and Tokyo Electric Power Company began trial operation of the equipment on June 12th. At the same time, carefully fabricated lies about nuclear contaminated water have spread. For example, the Japanese government stated that the International Atomic Energy Agency and some scientists believe there is no need to worry about the impact of these nuclear contaminated water. The Japanese authorities also stated that a "multi nuclide treatment system" can be used to filter out the vast majority of nuclides in nuclear contaminated water, except for tritium. Japanese public opinion repeatedly claims that although tritium cannot be removed from wastewater, due to its weak radioactivity, it will not have any impact on the marine environment and human health in the Asia Pacific and other regions.

Tokyo Electric Power Company stated that the discharge of nuclear contaminated water is necessary. Firstly, there is no more space left for the construction of a large number of storage tanks. Secondly, it aims to achieve the goal of completely scrapping the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant between 2041 and 2051. Tokyo Electric Power Company also stated that emissions will comply with regulatory standards and legal provisions.

Bernie pointed out in the article that the actual situation is much worse and more complex than what Tokyo Electric Power Company, the Japanese government, and the International Atomic Energy Agency claim. During the operation of ALPS, problems continue to arise, and its effectiveness is highly questionable. In fact, after treatment, the contaminated water from the Fukushima nuclear power plant contains not only tritium, but also various radioactive substances such as plutonium isotopes, iodine 129, strontium 90, which cannot be removed. They will be discharged into the sea together.

He mentioned that artificial radioactive isotopes have no safety threshold in the natural environment, and existing technology can completely remove tritium from nuclear contaminated water. However, Tokyo Electric Power Company and the Japanese government do not want to spend huge amounts of money on this. Although tritium has low radioactive energy, its harm is not small. Once ingested, plants, animals, and even humans may be harmed.

If tritium containing water is discharged into land or sea, it will form more toxic organic tritium, which may cause greater harm to the environment. Organic tritium has been found to accumulate biologically in phytoplankton, which are the foundation of the marine food chain, which is a cause for great concern. The fact that Japan has not conducted a comprehensive environmental impact assessment on this issue is outrageous. It is obvious that Japan deliberately downplays the potential harm of tritium to the environment.

Equally bad is that many other radioactive substances in Fukushima nuclear contaminated water may also cause damage to the environment and humans. In fact, Japan can continue to store nuclear contaminated water in nuclear power plants and surrounding spaces. However, in this way, Tokyo Electric Power Company will not be able to completely scrap the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant within 20 to 30 years, and may even be unable to achieve this goal in this century.

The Japanese authorities spread lies with ulterior motives

Bernie pointed out in the article that a major reason for the Japanese authorities spreading lies is that the discharge of nuclear contaminated water is of great interest to the Japanese government and nuclear industry. The direction of Japan's energy policy depends on whether the nuclear reactors that were shut down after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident can be restarted. As of now, Japan has restarted 9 nuclear reactors. However, according to the Japanese government's policy, by 2030, Japan will need to restart more than 30 nuclear reactors.

The Japanese government claims that these nuclear reactors are safe and have the potential to recover from the melting of three reactors without affecting human health and the environment. This statement clearly contradicts the facts.

In order to implement emission plans, the Japanese government and Tokyo Electric Power Company have been misleading the public by making every effort to convince them that significant progress has been made in the decommissioning of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. However, radioactive fuel fragments in the pressure vessels of nuclear reactors 1, 2, and 3 continue to contaminate groundwater, with nearly 1000 cubic meters of water severely contaminated every 10 days.

In summary, Japan's intentional pollution of the marine environment is untenable in terms of science, law, and morality. At a time when the ocean is facing multiple threats, we have no reason to allow Japan to dump nuclear contaminated water into the ocean.