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Gov't to release Fukushima nuclear plant water into sea despite fishermen's objection
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Ricky Sanchez
Of course they will release the water...one would be crazy to think that thr J-Gov't actually cares about people. I challenge them this. As the water is being poured into the Ocean, they need to wash fish with it. Then they need to have a Non-Social distance maskless party like they like to have and they all can eat the fish!
Cricky
Another Japanese Goverment PR blunder.
Toasted Heretic
Madness.
Don't trust this government.
Sheer madness.
sakurasuki
After few years Japan will force their trading partner countries to buy fisheries and agriculture products. If those trading partners countries refused to take products from impacted region, Japan won't hesitate to take this case to WTO.
Do the hustle
The treated water containing radioactive tritium, a byproduct of nuclear reactors, is said to pose little risk to human health because even if one drinks the water, so long as the tritium concentration is low, the amounts of tritium would not accumulate in the body and would soon be excreted.
It’s disappointing they conveniently omit the report from late last year stating that most of this water was not properly filtered and contains more deadly isotopes. The Japanese government is lying through their teeth about the safety of releasing this water.
They intend to release millions of tons of highly radioactive water, not a few bucket fulls. This has the potential to destroy the fisheries of the whole east coast of Japan. it’s no surprise the fishermen rejected the plan. It’s also no surprise the lying government disregarded their objection and will go ahead with it anyway.
Toshihiro
I feel sorry for the fisherman and all jobs who will have to suffer for this.
sakurasuki
Some still struggling for new home after 2011, those who still have job in fisheries will be impacted by this water dumping.
https://asia.nikkei.com/Economy/Natural-disasters/8-years-after-Fukushima-52-000-search-for-a-new-home
sf2k
consumer choice food A with radioactive waste contained herein versus food B that is clean. They might as well start suing the government now
divinda
I somehow doubt this nautical nuke dump would happen now if the country was open to tourists and the Olympics were to have the world visiting this summer.
dbsaiya
So much for the "recovery" Olympics supposedly to tout the Tohoku region's recovery. This will be a huge setback for their fishing industry, as no one will be buying fish from their area anymore.
sf2k
Constantly polluting the planet by any means necessary, got it
Stop nuclear power.
sf2k
I disagree, I think they'll release it either during opening ceremonies or the day after
thaonephil
At some point the pretending have to stop, nobody is listening, so no need to pretend objections are taken in account.
vanityofvanities
Peaceful uses of nuclear energies was a deceit of nuclear scientists. They developed nuclear power plants before coming up with the way disposing nuclear wastes.
MotMotMot
Load them into a tank, take into international waters in the South China Sea and let it off near one of those man made islands that irritate everyone in the region.
Charlie
The WHO are silent once more. And UN: silence also. EU: Not a word.
This is extremely serious on so many levels, it is obscene.
Who is gonna buy fish from these waters? Nobody.
It will destroy fishing industry in the region and endangers millions of lives..
Mr Kipling
At last..... common sense prevails. The real problem is the "risk perception" not the reality.
Dilution was always the only solution.
Politik Kills
Haven’t they seen Godzilla?!
bokuda
other reports that state that the water is not properly treated, has more dangerous radioactive isotopes than it should.
never trust a @KYODO article. wait for the other media to publish the real deal.
evaverdeazul
What do you mean there is no other option? Of course there is, keep the water in the tanks, or create a small lake with it. Dumping the water into the ocean is dangerous for everyone. I hope some of you in Japan protest this evil decision.
Laguna
C'mon. Anyone who didn't think it would come to this is a fool.
sf2k
I hope they recorded the conversation, that would be useful later
kwatt
If it is true, very poor for Fukushima fishermen and bad for all others there.
Tom Young
If not the sea, where?
sf2k
also please note this will be ongoing for the next 40 years or more, as the leaking hasn't stopped.
They have no choice but to dump it. The notion that the water has been adequately treated is a canard in classic oyaji fashion. It had already been indicated earlier and it will be revealed later again the level of ongoing isotopes released. They will do their best to spin it though
Nuclear power should be stopped in Japan. There are many renewable resources to go for. Japan needs leaders who will forego the brown envelopes
dan
Protest this terrible decision!
sf2k
with the ongoing relentless release of contaminated waters over and over for the next 40? 50? 100? years, the words Fukushima and Japan will be forever synonymous with radioactive wastes for generations to come far beyond Chernobyl. The stain will never leave
Objective
A more honest headline would have contained the word "treated"
Releasing treated nuclear plant water into the oceans is not exclusive to Japan and has been done many times before. A quick news clip from Goshi Hosono...
James
@bokuda
I have read this or watched it somewhere as well and also the amount of Tritium is actually twice to three times in some containers than what is being reported, Even around the area regarded as safe still has hot spots of high levels of radiation that locals avoid and the locals are doing a lot of their own testing and it shows that the governments data contradicts the data they have collected. (which is why they are gathering their own data).
Apparently their decision is based on information provided by the untrustable source of Tepco.
If the data is true and accurate then Japan should be open to allowing it to be tested by independent foreign organisation where they take it from the containers and prevent it from being switched before it is tested.
sf2k
I hope there is consideration to break up the prefecture in half, rename the other half that has nothing to do with the disaster to something else so at least some good can come out of a bad situation.
obladi
if you think its safe, then drink it, Suga-san.
ReasonandWisdomNippon
Just do it! ! !
Stop talking about it and asking the opinion of Koreans and Anti-Japan crowd they will always complain and say No!
Quote:''The treated water containing radioactive tritium, a byproduct of nuclear reactors, is said to pose little risk to human health because even if one drinks the water, so long as the tritium concentration is low, the amounts of tritium would not accumulate in the body and would soon be excreted.''
Roblib
Not that this is the an important part related to this article but isn't the IAEA a Vienna based organization? This article says Geneva. It has an office in Geneva but it's HQ is in Vienna I believe.
Peter Neil
I have a better idea: ship it all to the Senkaku Islands. Its half life is 12.3 years, so it will be depleted completely in about 120 years.
moonbloom
Yes thnx to the LDP government, whose post-war nucleus was composed of class A war criminals (i.e. former PM Abe's grandfather Kishi Nobusuke; another grandson of Kishi, Kishi Nobuo, is currently the Minister of Defense) reinstated by the US, and who worked with other US-released war criminals to get nuclear power into Japan so that corporate giants GE and Westinghouse could make immense profits (all from tax payers' money) and share the windfall through kickbacks...pattern continues with sales of arms (with assistance from Kishi Nobuo).
[ Shōriki was classified as a "Class A" war criminal after the Second World War, serving 21 months in prison.[1] However, he was released in 1947 after it was determined that the accusations against him were mostly of an “ideological and political nature”.[1]
In 2006, Tetsuo Arima, a professor specialising in media studies at Waseda University in Tokyo, published an article that proved Shōriki acted as an agent under the codenames of "podam" and "pojackpot-1" for the CIA to establish a pro-US nationwide commercial television network (NTV) and to introduce nuclear power plants using U.S. technologies across Japan. Arima's accusations were based on the findings of de-classified documents stored in the NARA in Washington, DC.[3]
stormcrow
A bird doesn’t crap in its own nest.
TARA TAN KITAOKA
Totally irresponsible.
kohakuebisu
Given all the lies so far, it is natural to assume that the water must be more polluted than we are being told and that the other measures at the plant like the ice wall, are less successful, than we are being told.
I am also curious about what payouts and other compensation have been going on behind the scenes.
Mark
"""The treated water containing radioactive tritium, a byproduct of nuclear reactors, is said to pose little risk to human health because even if one drinks the water, so long as the tritium concentration is low, the amounts of tritium would not accumulate in the body and would soon be excreted."""
If that is the case!! then let those who think it's safe drink it for and wait for the results. or better yet those who will decide to release the water.
ClippetyClop
Lake Bandai, just up the road. After all, it's harmless.
Japan's mess, Japan's problem.
Tokyo-Engr
Both options are bad. There is no good solution.
Leaving the water in the tanks has a risk of leakage due to corrision and/or damage or potential failure during an earthquake. Additionally, they will eventually run out of room to store the water as this is an ongoing issue. Currently they have over 1.3 billion cubic meters of water on site and they are at around 90% of storage capacity.
The other option is dumping contaminated water into the ocean which I believe needs to happen at some point in time.
Moving the water to another location poses numerous other risks and the possiblity of an uncontrolled release.
@zichi referenced a fairly good article which addresses the risks related to Strontium-90 and Iodine-129 (quote from article below). The information in the article is from TEPCO material which concedes not all water went through the ALPS treatment process. The balanced approach would be to ensure all water goes through the secondary filtering process before any release is allowed and ensure that international monitoring or oversight occurs (including verification of radio-nucliide concentrations prior to release). The international oversight is necessary due to the fact that TEPCO has demonstrated that the organization (not individual engineers) may not be fully trustworthy.
There is no "good" or "right" answer to this situation.
GW
I think many agree nuclear power MUST be phased out, its nowhere near safe in the short or long term.
As I have been saying since 2011 this water stored at Fukushima WILL REPEAT WILL end up in the ocean at some point, either man will release it or Mother Nature WILL, make no mistake, the water cycle is UNSTOPABLE in the long term.
Note quote below:
So these kinds of releases have been occurring around the world as a matter of course, the only difference will be scale & some concentration of isotopes etc.
There is NO easy answer BUT as I said this water now or in the future WILL be released one way or another
Tohoku fishermen etc will suffer bad business no matter if the water is stored or released
Goodlucktoyou
At least North Korea cares about their citizens. Japanese govt are very old men, don’t have to care about next generation.
But sadly, the sea currents from Tohoku will poison them, just like the entire western coast of Japan, Hawaii, and the west coast USA and Canada. Also the migratory fish after passing Philippine, Indonesia, (which feed on the radiation Tohoku, Hokkaido/Kanto fish) enter a new sea current that takes them to Australia and NZ.
I like the win/win solution, but this is a lose/lose unsolution.
Alfie Noakes
Well well well. The old dump-it-in-the sea solution was the one chosen. What a surprise. One wonders how much supplementary support budget (or however they will name it) will be required to compensate for the destruction of the Tohoku fishing industry.
yakyak
In protest boycott the Olympics now!
Omachi
My suggestion was to pump it over to Mr. Fuji, then up to the crater. As the crater filled, it would seep out thru the ash, becoming filtered, filling the 5 lakes, refreshing the springs, supplying all of Kanto with fresh drinking water. Whatever is left over could be used to refill the agricultural lakes so that an even distribution ended up in rice fields.
Since it is safe, no problem - right?
Derek Grebe
Wow, what a phenomenal surprise. Whoever could have predicted this?
In other news, Bear uses pristine forest as lavatory scandal.
wanderlust
IAEA paid off - their mission to promote the safe use of nuclear power.
'...it is a common way to release water at nuclear power plants...'
These 12 words are worth their weight in gold to TEPCO and the LDP and the nuclear village.
anon99999
It is quite urgent to do this now in order for it to get out of the news cyclews
Do the hustle
What reality is that? The false reality the lying Japanese government want us to believe? Or, is it the true reality whereby, tritium can be and has been successfully removed from water but the lying Japanese government are ignoring it and telling people it cannot be done. The reality where the lying Japanese government has been sitting on their hands for a decade watching this water build up. There are 100 square kilometers of land in Fukushima that can never be lived on again. There is no reason why this radioactive water cannot be shipped and stored there forever.
The Japanese government’s reality is just lies of convenience
Michael Machida
It's not just the fishermen who object.
"Gov't to release Fukushima nuclear plant water into sea despite fishermen's objection"
as_the_crow_flies
Releasing it is not a Japanese problem, it is a global problem. You can draw an imaginary line in the sea and say these are 'Japanese waters', but in reality contaminating the sea impacts some faster, some slower, some more, some less, but everyone eventually. And - flash news - fish can swim, so they also don't 'respect' borders. East coast fishers will be most impacted, but really all of us will face not knowing if our food is contaminated. Personally, I have added any fish or seafood labelled with a Japanese landing point since the accident, as it is a clear risk. There's no such thing as perfectly safe food any more, but this action of the Japanese government is obviously going to make Japanese catches that much more contaminated, and for a long time to come. I will be eating as little as possible (cook at home, eat imported fish/seafood) for the forseeable.
I know nothing about this, but isn't there a way to evaporate the water and store the residues? I'm guessing not, or they probably would have already done that. @zichi, any idea?
as_the_crow_flies
Typo - I have avoided fish landed in Japan
Septim Dynasty
Madness?
THIS IS JAPAN!!!
starpunk
Not a good idea.
drlucifer
Said by who ? How about doing some research before writing an article. If it is said by someone with interest in the nuclear village should we believe them because they are so called experts?
bearandrodent
Surprise, surprise? They were going to do this anyway. It was a foregone conclusion.
Nator
https://www.radioactivity.eu.com/site/pages/Tritium.htm#:~:text=Tritium%20is%20a%20beta%2Demitting,proton%20and%20only%20one%20neutron).
This article says drinking 2 litres a day for a year is equivalent to two weeks natural exposure in France. I would therefore suggest the politians could consume it themselves. Maybe they could make a special brand of Whiskey from the water.
What is missing from this article is actual levels of tritium in those tanks, how much it needs to be watered down, how long is it going to take to pour it all into the sea and how much more water from the plants is being added each day.
When people claim nuclea power is safe they always state that accidents are rare. Rare they may be but when they happen the clear up and cost is massive. Plus I was in the UK when the Chernobyl cloud came over and I was in Japan when the initial disaster happened. So I feel for such rare events I have been exposed twice. I also lived close to two nuclea plants in England that had leak accidents and ended up being re-named and shut down.
drlucifer
The experts are members of the nuclear village sharing similar views to the jiminto government, these are the same experts that through the mainstream had for years been deceiving the public that nuclear is very safe and accidents can never occur only for the tohoku earthquare to debunk years of deceit.
drlucifer
There is easily boj printed money, hope the fishermen are not offered a wad of cash and they withdraw their opposition, Though money is important, I hope they understand that the health of the nation is more important. The government splashed money at localities that accepted to host nuclear plants or waste and these localities awash with free easy money built structures. Bridges, roads etc that were never used and fukushima has shown that the price to pay is very high and far surpasses the free money from the government.
drlucifer
You and I will buy without knowing it was caught in waters of fukushima, all it takes is processing the fish in another far off prefecture and labelling as product of that prefecture. I don't eat raw fish and can easily refrain from eating fresh fish, may be buy frozen fish from abroad, so far money is concerned I have learned not to trust my brothers ir even my wife.
Kumagaijin
Someone once said that Japan hosting the Olympics is like having a house party with a plugged toilet because of Fukushima.
Now its almost literally true.
shogun36
Why is anyone shocked?
Of course the Japanese government won't listen to the fishermen, it's people.
They won't listen to reason, logic, intelligence, or actual experts in each field. Why would this be any different?
GO GO NIPPON!!! 2021 Olympics!!!!!! Vaccines will come in June, I mean July, I mean August..................(give me a break)
drlucifer
What happens to the unesco naming of washoku as a world heritage or japanese themselves always reminding us how washoku is synonymous with health.?
kurisupisu
Yet more pollution into the environment!
Whilst Japan is preparing a glorified sports competition, it is dumping nuclear waste.
There is a disconnect somewhere...
Kuruki
So despite every stakeholders saying "DO NOT DUMP IT INTO THE OCEAN!!!" they still decide to dump it.
The government claims that the radiation level has been treated but this also accumulates as you go up the food chain and eventually will end up on our plate at a dangerous level. The complete implications and consequences on our society and the environment is also unclear.
Don't forget - Japan had already dumped radioactive water into the ocean before and it was later found to have flown all the way to the west coast of USA.
The Japanese government should dump it into their own forest and lake instead of the ocean which will affect the entire world.
Paul
End of fishing industry in Japan!
WilliaminTK
Yes they only meet the Fishermen just to say they did! They were never going to listen to them. Oh, and no one seems to talk about all the untreated water they escaped out into the Pacific before the tanks were even made. That area of the sea is already dead. Remember, don't eat any of the fish that come from that area.
Now when the real GODZILLA comes up from the Ocean in a few years don't be surprised!
drlucifer
It will never happen, people have been brought up from small with the belief that anything produced here in Japan especially here in Japan is safer and of better quality than from abroad and dumping it into the sea won't change that when you have a mainstream media acting like the mouthpiece of the government and more
interested in fanning nationalism that delivering the truth.
I buy 5kg California Calrose rice at costco for 1200yen and I am very happy with the taste, not different from
Koshihikari or hitomebore or the other Japanese brand rice, Infact, I am very happy most Japanese are
shunning it.
Robert pearce
Won't hurt the environment one bit.
Goodlucktoyou
no it won’t. For about 10 years Tohoku fishing boats catch contaminated fish from the nuclear disaster area. Then they offload their catches in Hokkaido or Ibaraki etc. the label in the supermarket doesn’t have GPS coordinates of where each fish was caught. Same as beef moved on trucks to Kyushu...
kurisupisu
There is no doubt that I now have radioactive particles from Fukushima in my body.
After the accident there was a concerted effort to send food and debris all over Japan to even far flung prefectures.
I really do not want any more radioactive material to be allowed to contaminate our environment.
Ghabb
Make an agreement with nation(s) who have desert-like /desolate area. Perhaps some countries can make a good money out from this. (For example no one lives in some parts of Sahara desert?). Also Russia/or other countries have probably their own places for dumping their waste products? Throwing it in the ocean (also for the many years of future wastes) goes back to our food chain. You really have to be sure that it is safe to do this.
Hideomi Kuze
Suga government of Japan who spends several trillion yen for infamous "GoTo campaign" is stingy about this issue, and mere chose radioactive contamination that is cheaper than buying new places and making new tanks.
One fisherman said "If radioactive contaminated water is safe, should release it to Tokyo bay".
Japan's authorities says "water containing radioactive tritium" but that word is fraud.
Radioactive contaminated water of Fukushima contains also other radioactivity such as radioactive iodine or strontium90, never only tritium.
But major media of Japan emphasize "reputational damage" only, and build social atmosphere as if damage to health is nothing at all.
Japan's authorities had distorted scientific fact due to political and economical circumstances historically, and had caused many environmental destruction including Fukushima nuclear disaster.
Government of Japan takes advantage of experts who never oppose government's intention also about this issue as same as nuclear policy or response to Covid-19.
bokuda
TEPCO should take reasonability for it's waste.
pump all the radioactive water to the TEPCO offices water tanks for them to drink and shower with.
TARA TAN KITAOKA
Who are these people???.
irreconcilable
This is the norm so releasing was their plan all along. They could have evaporated it already otherwise. Do you think they'll test every batch of water like they test every fish?
gogogo
Fisherman's ? How about everyone objection? I don't care if it costs money to store the water!
HJSLLS
Should make everyone think twice about eating seafood in Japan. In 10 years everyone in Japan will be glowing.
Peter Neil
Continuation and improving filtering, then releasing the filtered water in measured amounts is going to be inevitable. The low concentration of Tritium is of little consequence. Some of the extremely low concentrations of other remaining heavier isotopes will also have almost unmeasurable effect on marine life.
Leaving it in higher concentrations in storage tanks is a poor choice, considering the earthquake probabilities of the area. Moving the tanks will also increase the risk of large leaks.
Some of you are being spun up by irrational conspiracy nonsense being presented by attention-seeking jokers. Remember the Australian nutcase Helen Caldicott, who has never presented a shred of evidence to support her exaggerated and false claims of Japan becoming a radioactive wasteland?
Japan should not be a nation using nuclear power because the geological realities of the nation. However, you have to deal with the realities of where Fukushima is now and not a fairly tale of what you wish it was.
mmwkdw
Why not transfer the containers to the various dispute islands ?
Kei Kurono
Finally a good news.
Kapuna
Don't release into the sea. Drain it on to land near Fukushima and let the sun evaporate the water.
Zaphod
They have no other choice, and it is actually safe. But stand by for lots of screaming from antinuclear fanatics.
Zaphod
irreconcilable
LOL, read up on what Tritium is.
Zaphod
Euro Dude
LOL no. With the dilution involved, this makes as much difference to you as a butterfly flapping its wings in the Amazon delta.
Zeram1
The Chinese government just said that Japan has to be more transparent about this matter. Oh the irony!
Sachiko
I do not know a lot about this, but could they not reuse the water to cool the reactors. Instead of dumping it into the ocean.
jeancolmar
From the article: *"The treated water containing radioactive tritium, a byproduct of nuclear reactors, is said to pose little risk to human health because even if one drinks the water, so long as the tritium concentration is low, the amounts of tritium would not accumulate in the body and would soon be excreted.*"
"What is "is said"? "Who said? That this key source is anonymous and in the passive voice should give you pause. Someone is not owning up. Doesn't want to own up. That should not happen if poured radioactive tritium in the sea was as safe as a well shaken martini.
And consider how many years it will take to empty those tanks. That radioactive will build up it power in the ocean. None of it will go away.
William Bjornson
When discussing the lack of concern for Human health and welfare of Corporate and senior Gov people, this story will be an example. For poisons like these, the Pacific Ocean is not an infinitely vast sewer into which generations long lasting toxins can be poured without conscience and, when considering these things, it is more a bathtub that many other people have to use and Tepco wants to take a BIG DUMP in it. It will be interesting to watch the background radioactivity counts climb along the Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia coasts. I'd bet that a good epidemiologist could even compute the number of 'extra' deaths among fishermen and, perhaps, fish consumers and even beach goers with children also from the increased ionizing particles and photons they will be exposed to, through no fault of their own, and resulting neoplasias. Tough decisions but the solution should not be simply the perp deciding to share the problem with everyone else on the planet. No?
Mark
Can’t they just take the lids off and let it evaporate?
Would that be safer?
WilliB
jeancolmar
Radioaktivity ALWAYS goes away, sometimes very fast, sometimes slow. That is why half-life is always given when talking about this topic. All of it goes away eventually (and we always get natural background radiation). Nothing is static or forever here.
Slickdrifter
Every scientist in the world looked at this. No one could come with another option, No one. Or one the Japanese government would entertain.
I am speechless. This wrong on so many levels and the blow back on it is going to change the way the world looks at Japan.