Tanks store water that was treated but still radioactive after it was used to cool down spent fuel at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Okuma town, Fukushima Prefecture. Photo: AP file
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Respite for gov't as Fukushima radioactive water accumulation slows

19 Comments
By Takaki Tominaga

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An IAEA task force, established last year, is made up of independent and highly regarded experts with diverse technical backgrounds from various countries including China and South Korea.

This is a step on the right direction, but as mentioned in the quote by Nishimura it needs to be complemented by effective communication with the people that inevitably are going to be affected by the release.

And by "effective" communication I mean going both ways, not only telling the people that the release is going to happen no matter what, but actually listening to their complains and worries and clearly explaining what is going to be done to address the problems.

It is obviously impossible to get everybody happy, but that is a terribly bad excuse just to do something without making an effort first to justify it properly.

7 ( +8 / -1 )

It will be forever unless TEPCO can 100% stop the underground water from reaching the reactor basements and until the 600 tons of highly radioactive molten fuel can be removed. That isn't happening any time soon.

5 ( +7 / -2 )

I am comforted to see the world's leading nuclear experts are reading and commenting on JT

4 ( +7 / -3 )

Just build an ice wall and that will fix all your problems.... Oh wait...

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Because of the heat less underground water.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

South Korea and China do exactly the same thing.

You mean they both had massive nuclear tragedies due to massive incompetence?

1 ( +4 / -3 )

Why can't they recycle the accumulated water back to the reactors ?

1 ( +2 / -1 )

results of my three-second search:

Most scientists agree that the presence of tritium is not a major concern. “The health impact will be almost zero,” said Marks. “We are surrounded by radiation in our daily life, and this release will not affect humans, marine life or the ocean itself.”Apr 13, 2021

https://www.scmp.com › article › w...

Why is Japan going to dump radioactive water from ...

let’s all stop being alarmist. it’s a big ocean so it will be extremely diluted.

0 ( +5 / -5 )

Why can't they recycle the accumulated water back to the reactors ?

Official answer is that they don't want to add radioactivity back into the core.

But...They also say that the water is not radioactive.

2 conflicting messages.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

Outline of Decommissioning, Contaminated Water and Treated Water Management

June 30, 2022

https://www.meti.go.jp/english/earthquake/nuclear/decommissioning/pdf/mp202206.pdf

0 ( +1 / -1 )

If the US decided to dump nuclear waste into the Pacific Ocean, how many countries would be in an uproar?

-1 ( +4 / -5 )

bokuda

Official answer is that they don't want to add radioactivity back into the core.

But...They also say that the water is not radioactive.

2 conflicting messages.

Some of the cooling water is recycled. The problem is the total of the underground water and the leaking cooling water causes a volume of water greater than what is needed for cooling.

https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2014/EM/c4em00103f

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

I have to ask again, why ?

The Radiation content of water is irrelevant, since by their proposed action of pumping such water out to sea, and then pumping it back in - sort of defeats that argument.

As for creating new water from nothing.. I think you mean condensation, which is easily collected and reused.

Fukushima has amassed such a vast amount of water, that it could, if the will existed, reuse that water in a closed loop system of recycling coolant, rather than simply dumping it into the local Sea which would result, in potentially, an unknown side effect....

If a closed loop recycle is not possible, then I have to doubt what they say about the Safety of what they are doing...

Anyone got any evidence to suggest otherwise ?

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

@Bubonam Justin Kayce

Those "Brightest" minds, have clearly not explained their reasoning very well to their lesser educated compatriots ... and you should know, assumption is generally the cause of the "Mother of all f*k-us" ....

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

The slowdown, based on an estimate by operator Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc, gives some breathing space to Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's government if any roadblocks are thrown up in the plan to discharge the treated water into the sea starting around spring next year.

Kyodo asking us to shed tear for the real victims of the Fukushima disaster who need respite: TEPCO and the LDP gov't.

The apologists are pretty disgusting.

-3 ( +4 / -7 )

virusrex

This is a step on the right direction, but as mentioned in the quote by Nishimura it needs to be complemented by effective communication with the people that inevitably are going to be affected by the release.

Nobody is going to be affected by this, even if they release the whole storage at once. Read on the concept of dilution. The opposition is purely psychological.

-4 ( +4 / -8 )

An IAEA task force, established last year, is made up of independent and highly regarded experts with diverse technical backgrounds from various countries including China and South Korea.

And do you really think that South Korea and China can be fair towards Japan? Oh dear.

-4 ( +0 / -4 )

Why is TEPCO still generating contaminated water?

Is this gonna continue forever?

-7 ( +1 / -8 )

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