Japan OKs plan to release Fukushima nuclear plant wastewater

Might be time to give up the sushi then for me.

what a surprise! considering they've been talking about this "option" for years, and the reality being that there are no other options..... nothing but political 'theatre'

Was it ever a discussion, an option?

in a report issued late April, said Japan is making “significant progress”

That means that Japan is not doing well. At least not well enough to allow the discharge of contaminated water.

Why is this happening without the consent of the IAEA?!

"Japan nuclear authority chairman Toyoshi Fuketa said that the plan is made conservatively so the radiation impact on the environment could be still below the legal limit in case of any thinkable risks."

This quote contains the phrase, 'could be'. The whole article is full of unknowns but they are going ahead regardless. Are they prepared to accept the consequences for being wrong and destroying the east coast fishing and tourism industry and giving countless thousands cancer due to nuclear isotope exposure?

There is no need to pump this water into the ocean. There are large swaths of land near the plant and out of the flood zone that can never be lived on again. This water should be stored there indefintely. However, this would mean costs involved in transporting, storage and maintanence of the storage facility. It's much easier for Japan to pump the water into the large nuclear waste dump known to the rest of us as, the Pacific Ocean. I don't think I'll be doing any surfing or fishing on the east coast of Japan ever again.

What happened to the report from the international team who inspected the plant a few months ago, I never saw or heard any results. What about the report from two years ago that stated the water contained more dangerous isotopes than just tritium due to poor filtering proceedures? This whole scenario stinks as yet another Japanese whitewash. There are way to many discrepancies in all the news released by nippon kaigi to belive this is a safe move. This is a manmade environmental disaster on a scale never seen before and will not be solved with a deep bow and a hollow apology.

Japan does not OK this. The Japanese Government does. There is a large difference.

As I have said before, if it is really so harmless, dump it in the lakes of LDP constituencies.

If not, and they are relying on the dangerous water being diluted by the sea then they should be straight up about it.

Not one single person has been held accountable for the mismanagement, neglect and sloppiness which led to this disaster which could have been avoided if they'd spent a bit more money and not placed the plants right next to the sea at sea-level. It's not as if huge tsunamis have never been recorded there.

Like I have said since the beginning this contaminated water WILL end up in the ocean, there is ZERO chance of avoiding it. The only control humans have is to allowed releases over time or WAIT until Mother Nature releases the water into the ocean(slowly through rusty tanks links, typhoons or quakes etc).

If we wait on Mother Nature then I suspect we will have a mix of slow, sudden bursts or one big dump back into the ocean, but thats for her to decide!

Foxes approve nightly inspection of neighbouring hen house

Why hasn't TEPCO been made to take the more expensive route to stop the necessity of any release??!! It was their penny pinching and greed that caused this and as far as I can see they have never been made to atone for their sons! Shameful episode for Japan and just highlights the ongoing cronyism in the system!

It is not only tritium that remains in the radioactive soup.

There has never been a study of tritium consumption on humans to ever show even the possibility of an effect.

The diluted level to be released will be lower than the water coming out of your faucet.

Tritium is cleared from the body of fish in two days. Two weeks for humans.

not good news from early morning.

really not good news.

Might be time to give up the sushi then for me.

With all the mercury that bioaccumulates in tuna, I'd have thought that was a long time ago....

1km doesn't sound that long.....why can't they build it further? So little chance of it just being brought back inshore on the tides?

Why hasn't TEPCO been made to take the more expensive route to stop the necessity of any release??!! It was their penny pinching and greed that caused this and as far as I can see they have never been made to atone for their sons! Shameful episode for Japan and just highlights the ongoing cronyism in the system!

because they are a private company, which means any costs that they incur will be passed onto its customers.......US! Welcome to another reason why public infrastructure shouldn't be in the hands of private capital

There has never been a study of tritium consumption on humans to ever show even the possibility of an effect.

do some research.

the mass liquid release doesn’t only contain tritium. Cesium maybe extracted, but the percentage of Strontium, plutonium, the presence of iodine which has a short half-life is also worrying. Americium, and over 40 other radionuclides are still present, in unreleased amounts. Don’t eat seafood from Hokkaido to Tokyo is my advise. Especially bottom feeders, although migratory fish like tuna and buri for example, consume these and increase their absorbed toxicity.

what I can’t find in my research, is what happens to the extremely dangerous radionuclides extracted by the ALPS system? It’s a mystery.

they've been talking about this "option" for years, and the reality being that there are no other options

They have other options they could use the filter system developed by Kindai University back in 2018.

developed an aluminum filter with extremely tiny holes 5 nanometers or less in diameter each. The filter can stop vapors of tritium water, and the separation rate was "almost 100 percent,

https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20180828/p2a/00m/0na/013000c

So why don't they use this system prior to releasing the water "almost 100 percent". oh not cost effective cheaper to just possibly (not enough study has been done on HTO and it's effects) poison every thing

RodneyToday  10:37 am JST

There has never been a study of tritium consumption on humans to ever show even the possibility of an effect.

do some research

Post a clinical study.

And Godzilla is born.

Be prepared for a health scandal in the years to come. Japan is littered with these scandals when it comes to pollution,business,profits and health. Guess which one is at the bottom of their concerns?

Mercury poisoning Scandal x 2

HIV scandal.x2

Asbestos Scandal

Cadmium Poisoning Scandal

Sulfur dioxide scandal.

Yusho disease.

On paper it looks as if they’ve thought of everything.

Japan does NOT OK release of the water... I don't remember voting to release it? No one in Japan wants to release it... they should store it until they figure out a way to clean it... hell put up a prize for it, get a bunch of universities to enter... much better!

Well it’s really not up-too the public on this one it’s a j-corp and government decision. They know best! That’s why they are the designated deciders of your lives, you must feel better now. YOU Should feel better NOW.

tritium can have a bigger impact on humans when consumed in fish than in water.

Makes me think of the Minamata disaster. The methylmercury consumed by humans came from fish and shellfish, not the water. Who knows what type of radioactive cocktail all that tritium will produce once it starts being consumed by sea life.

Yes, Japanese citizens do not says YES to this. The Japanese Government does. But, what is the difference?

In this country citizens just say OK to government and show no interest in politics and political debate. Besides, talking about politics clash with the cultural norms of japanese society, since political debate means to show your opinion and, sometimes, contradict your interlocutor's opinion.

Most of citizens are old people that are just tired of their lives, after a life spent as yes-men drones and overtime at work. Most of the young citizens (the ones that could raise their voices for the future of the country) are disinterested in politic-related things, maybe because they are too busy in building their future according to the strict rule of the Japanese society (since your future could be heavily impacted if you fail, especially the step of the exam-hell).

Yes, almost all citizens here are indifferent to politic-related things.

Moreover, on Japanese TV there is NOTHING about political debate. The 80% of broadcast is food-related programs.

Appreciate all of the people commenting here on JT but let's face it the broader Japanese public have zero interest in this issue.

just use the contaminated water to irrigate the rice patties, most people buy produce from Fukushima and assume they’re immuned to any radioactive goods, not like me!

@Michael Machida

Japan does not OK this. The Japanese Government does. There is a large difference.

Actually knowing about this plan prior to the lower house elections in November last year. The people of Japan voted in the current Japanese Government even though the opposition party said they would not release the water. So actually Japan does ok this. if they didn't then they would have ousted the current government.

Actually knowing about this plan prior to the lower house elections in November last year. The people of Japan voted in the current Japanese Government 

You do understand that the Jiminto manages to win by a landslide with only a third or so of the vote? A handful of rightwing farmers in the inaka 'voting in the government' does not mean the general populace agrees with official policies.

@cleo

You do understand that the Jiminto manages to win by a landslide with only a third or so of the vote?

Yes I do, I also understand that only 55% of the population voted. Which means their 30% is higher than the 25% vote for the opposition.

Basically when people don't vote it is actually a vote for LDP which actually means that yes a majority of people voted in LDP either via an actual vote or by not voting. the farmers in the Inaka have nothing to do with it it is the 45% of Japanese people who don't vote that is the problem.

The contaminated water is being stored in about 1,000 tanks at the damaged plant, which officials say must be removed so that facilities can be built for its decommissioning

I don’t understand this. What is to be removed? The tanks or the plant or the water? If it is the tanks, where will the new radioactive water go?

The tanks need to be moved so they can build facilities that will be used in decommissioning the damaged reactors.

Once they have emptied the water into the ocean any new treated water will go directly to the ocean and not be stored.

This is totally irresponsible.

gogogo: put up a prize for figuring a way of cleaning it.....

Great idea, there are so many talented and dynamic young scientists and technologists in the Japanese universities, this would be a good route to unlocking this conundrum - the answer always lies in the science, we just have to work it out.

 I wonder how it will be tested in the same way in the future to see if the decontamination process worked sufficiently well.

Easy. Go fishing and count the number of heads on each fish.

Great idea, there are so many talented and dynamic young scientists and technologists in the Japanese universities, this would be a good route to unlocking this conundrum - the answer always lies in the science, we just have to work it out.

Why bother Kindai University already figured it out. The filter can stop vapors of tritium water, and the separation rate was "almost 100 percent,

And they said no, release is safe enough and cheaper compared to anything else.

https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20180828/p2a/00m/0na/013000c

Only time will tell!! Lets see how many people will be around to actually find out. Now how long has the sun been here?

That's not good to the enviroment and Japanese people.

Mr. Kishida think about it please.

Imagine the amount of back scratching it took to get this naughty deal RINGIed

Still waiting on that clinical study on tritium effects on humans . . .

They could have gotten rid of the Tritium completely and safely. Electrolyze the water, release the O2 and H2 separately, at night. The H2 including the Tritium will migrate up through the atmosphere are about 20m/s. Doing it at night minimizes the amount of recombination with O2 in the atmosphere. My only question would be could you somehow use the waste heat at the plant to run the electrolyzers!

Haven't you noticed, most Japanese suffer from'head in the sand' syndrome, they neither know or care about the toxic and radioactive soup, known as the Pacific coast of Japan.