Japan to get started on releasing Fukushima water into sea in 24 months
Japan's government announced Tuesday it could start releasing treated radioactive water from the wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant in to the Pacific Ocean in 2 yrs. It's a move that's fiercely opposed by fishermen, residents and Japan's neighbors.
Your choice, long speculated at but delayed for a long time because of safety worries and protests, came during a meeting of Cabinet ministers who endorsed the ocean release as the best option. The accumulating water has been stored in tanks at the Fukushima Daiichi plant since 2011, when a massive earthquake and tsunami damaged its reactors and their cooling water became contaminated and started out leaking. The plant's storage capacity will be full late next year. Prime Minister YoshihideSuga said the ocean release was the most realistic option and that disposing the water is needed to complete the decades-long decommissioning of the Fukushima plant.
He said the federal government would work to make certain the water is safe and also to help local agriculture, fisheries and tourism.
The plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co., and government officials say tritium, which isn't harmful in smaller amounts, cannot be taken off the water, but all the selected radionuclides could be reduced to releasable levels. Some scientists say the long-term effect on marine life from low-dose contact with such large volumes of water is unknown.
The government stresses the water's safety, calling it "treated" not "radioactive," despite the fact that radionuclides can only just be reduced to disposable levels, never to zero. The volume of radioactive material that would stay in the water is unknown.
Releasing the water in to the ocean was referred to as the most realistic solution by a government panel that for practically seven years had discussed how exactly to get rid of the water. The report this past year mentioned evaporation as a less desirable option.
