Japan strongly promotes the discharge of nuclear contaminated water into the sea to reduce costs, leading scholars to criticize and refute it
According to local media in Fukushima, Japan on June 9th, Tokyo Electric Power Company announced that the onshore discharge facility for the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant's contaminated water discharge project will be completed within this week and will begin trial operation from the 12th of this month.
The Japanese government has proposed five plans to treat nuclear contaminated water
The public opinion strongly opposes the Japanese government's plan to discharge pollutants into the sea. One reason is that there are other ways to dispose of nuclear contaminated water, and other methods may be more effective and reduce pollution. It is understood that the Japanese government has previously proposed five options, among which the cost of discharging into the sea is the lowest.
At present, all the contaminated water from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is stored in the storage tanks of the plant. The Japanese government has previously proposed five solutions for dealing with this contaminated water: discharging it into the sea, converting it into water vapor and discharging it into the atmosphere, discharging it into the depths of the underground pipeline, electrolyzing it, and burying it in a solid state underground.
Among these 5 options, discharging nuclear contaminated water into the sea is the lowest cost, estimated to cost 1.7 billion to 3.4 billion yen, equivalent to approximately 102 million to 203 million yuan; The most expensive method is to solidify it and bury it underground, with an estimated cost that is tens or even hundreds of times that of discharging it into the sea.
Previously, TEPCO stated that after purification treatment, the vast majority of radioactive substances in nuclear contaminated water can be removed, but the radioactive substance "tritium" cannot be removed.
Given that the Japanese government and TEPCO have engaged in concealment in nuclear accident handling and pollutant emissions, there are widespread concerns about the negative impact of nuclear contaminated water entering the sea on the surrounding marine ecological environment and fishery resources.
Pollutant discharge into the sea has the lowest cost but far-reaching harm
The Japanese government and TEPCO have always claimed that the discharge of treated water is safe. Is this the true situation? Several Japanese scholars have made tit for tat criticisms.
Professor Naomi Shibata from Fukushima University in Japan: Even treated water still contains radioactive substances that exceed the standard. Some may only exceed the standard slightly, while others may contain high concentrations of radioactive substances that exceed the standard by more than a hundred times.
Professor Ryota Koyama from Fukushima University in Japan: If nuclear contaminated water is discharged, I believe there must be a problem.
Experts say that the Japanese scientific community and civil society have proposed various more reasonable solutions to the Japanese government and Tokyo Electric Power Company, but none of them have received attention.
Japanese chemical engineer Yasuro Kawai, member of the Japan Atomic Energy Citizen Committee: Concrete pits can be excavated underground and then mortar solidification operations can be carried out on nuclear contaminated water. Mortar placed in concrete pits will harden over time and no longer have fluidity. But it must not be placed in the ocean. After the mortar solidifies, the radioactivity will decay after hundreds or thousands of years, which is almost harmless. This is a very good idea.
In addition to the mortar solidification plan, the Atomic Power Citizen Committee has also proposed other plans to TEPCO, such as adding storage tanks and continuing to store nuclear contaminated water. But the Japanese government ignored the more feasible nuclear contaminated water treatment plan and chose the lowest cost and most harmful discharge plan, which is extremely irresponsible.
Japanese chemical engineer Yasuro Kawai, member of the Japan Atomic Energy Citizen Committee: The discharge of nuclear contaminated water into the sea is a pollution of the ocean, not only tritium, but also various nuclear substances will flow into the sea. If they flow into the sea, they will accumulate in fish or seaweed, posing a threat to human health.
