Japan nuclear regulator OKs details for Fukushima plant water release

UN needs to stop this

Good. It's about time. The only real negative effect of that is it will send all the Greenpeace-types running around screaming bloody murder with their hair on fire and we'll all have to listen to it. It's a big, big ocean, and that stuff is diluted way down. Fish swimming around at the end of the hose? Maybe not good for them. But for the larger ocean, no effect. What were they supposed to do with it? When they run out of room and need to encroach on areas outside the complex to store it, what will everyone say then? You're never going to please environmentalists no matter what you do so why bother trying.

Just get on with it ..

The risk it poses is extremely minimal.

Dilution is the solution.

Mr Kipling

Dilution is the solution

Unfortunately in this scenario "the solution to pollution is dilution "does not apply !

I thought you would have realized that by now

Similar to oil spills in the ocean where they use dispursants that only make the oil get washed up in smaller quantities.

The radioactive elements will bind back together.

It would have been more intelligent to evaporate the water and reuse or bury the radioactive material.

It's futile for anyone to deny the radioactive material will not enter our food chains and not damage the environment

As I have said since 2011, this water WILL end up in the ocean, will be done by man or by mother nature or both, you CANT stop mother nature & the water cycle, in fact groundwater has been releasing "Fukushima Water" into the ocean since the tsunami hit & will continue to release for 1000s of years.

Better to control releases that to wait for mother nature to speed up the process!!

There was never any doubt they would approve the release of millions of tons of irradiated water into the pacific. They’ve sat on their hands for over a decade watching this water build up to a point where they have no choice than to release it into the ocean. There are other options but pumping into the ocean is easier and cheaper.

There are large swaths of land near the plant and away from the coast that can never be lived on again. The water could be stored there in proper containers made to last the 30-40 years it will take for the tritium to dissipate. It is also possible to remove tritium from water but it is costly.

All the studies that have been done are only on a small scale. this is millions of tons of irradiated water. TEPCO admitted the water contains more than just tritium due to poor filtering of the water. Say goodbye to the east coast fishery and I would t be planning a day at the beach on the east coast for the next 40-50 years.

Never ever touch anything from Fukushima.

Stopped eating FISH in general, no more sushi, sashimi etc.

Please ask the Japanese politicians that support it, to drink the water for a month. Thank you.

I asked the owner of the fruit stand, ''is this apple from Japan?'' ''Why do you ask?'' Said the owner. ''Yeah, why do you ask?'' Said the apple.

Please do some research as to what this "radioactive " water actually is and how dangerous it is. In reality it poses very little risk to anyone.

Also come up with a better solution..... crickets.....

Is there no other better way of dealing with the radioactive water than just dumping it into the Pacific?

Has IAEA concurred with such undesirable decision?

Had all possible options been exhausted?

Think again, think harder and deeper..

will stop eating seafood after the release.

If you drink a whole bottle of vodka straight, or you drink a whole bottle of vodka with tonic, good luck explaining to the police officer that you are OK to drive because it’s diluted.

Taki Mata- The exact thing we are lucky the Fukushima meltdown did not produce (in big amounts like Chernobyl).

You can not compare Chernobyl and Fukushima. They were completely different catastrophies. The Chernobyl reactor was not in a containment vessel which meant the debris was spread over a wide area during the explosion. It also meant the radioactive debris was easy to collect and the crater was able to be sealed with cement. This is not the case in Fukushima. They still have no idea how they wil remove the melted fuel rods from the bottom of the containment vessel. The containment vessel itself is ruptured and leaking highly radioactive water into the water table underneath. The water they are using to cool these melted rods will keep building up for decades until they figure out a way to remove and store them. Dumping this water into the ocean is an environmental disaster. However, the worst could still be to come when they attempt removing and storing these melted fuel rods. It's not a far stretch of the imagination for the sci-fi movie 'The China Syndrome' to easily become a reality in Fukushima. It only needs one small slip up and it's all over!

@Taki Mata

That's nonsense !

And no i didn't say i would wash up of the beach

Perhaps if you were aware of the fact that seawater doesn't dilute the isotopes and when the seawater evaporates into clouds which is a distillation that rains down .

Unfortunately too many are under the false illusion that the radioactive water is diluted.

Perhaps if the entire water they collected was pure rainwater it would be partially diluted.

Taki Maki you don't really understand the chemistry.

Then on top of that the so called experts don't know exactly how much radioactive water will be produced or how many decades it will take to release it !

So thier BS environmental study is complete hogwash and has no actual proof to sustain their claim its safe

@ Mr Kipling

In actual fact i have a certification in hazmat and ran a business for almost 30 years in the hydrocarbon industry.

So i don't need to read some BS study made by a well paid chemist because iam chemist myself.

Thankyou

Cricket is a game

Krikey is not.

China on Friday renewed its protest over the planned wastewater release and urged Japan to carry out the disposal in "a scientific, open, transparent and safe manner.

China talks about 'a scientific, open, transparent and safe manner'?

The question remains however, what else can they do with this huge amount of radioactive water but to release it slowly into the ocean?

@Rodney

I understand what your try to say -however alcohol is water soluble and the radioactive material they claim is diluted isn't.

Its in there but it isn't diluted.

I understand what your try to say -however alcohol is water soluble and the radioactive material they claim is diluted isn't.

You're comparing particles with waves...

We're not talking about light here.

It would have been more intelligent to evaporate the water and reuse or bury the radioactive material.

That would actually be a terrible idea. First, the amount of energy to evaporate that amount of water would be colossal. Second, tritium is bonded with oxygen atoms to form a water molecules and that’s what it is difficult to filter it out. And by boiling that kind of water you would just make it into radioactive steam which would again settle into radioactive water.

@strangerland

The isotopes are not completely dilutable and you can researche your self

For your information it's impossible to have chemistry without physics !

For your information it's impossible to have chemistry without physics !

Um, it's impossible to have existence without physics.

@sandoval

I didn't say boiling it to evaporate.

That's ridiculous !

And if the surface area is expanded it takes little energy to evaporate.

Controlled evaporation that is.

That's exactly my point is it would become condensed.

I didn't say filter it out either.

No point in me trying to explain anymore if my words get constantly manipulated.

Radioactive material doesn't just magically appear and then disappear

If you believe that a suspension and a dilution are the same thing you are mistaken.

It is time to leave Japan if you ever thought about it. I personally know 6 families (foreigner partner and Japanese partner) with children, some are colleagues and some are friends that are planning to move outside Japan.

I won't blame them. Their children are more important to them than silly things such as “Japan is clean”.

For those who say “I will stop eating fish from Fukushima” or “I live in south Japan”, I reply “Then, stop to eat ALL fish and fish-based products”. When you seat in a sushi restaurant they do not say where the fish come from. Maybe they just say 国産 to say it is from Japan. Of course, they will never say "this is from Fukushima". Fish from Fukushima will become very cheaper and buying and processing fish from Fukushima will become very profitable for all restaurants and food-related companies. Bon appetit!

Remember when, after the nuclear accident, the government claimed on TV that foods from Fukushima were safe. Remember when well-paid TV personalities ate peaches and other foods from Fukushima in front of the camera.

Simple, do what we do, never go to the Fukushima area, never swim on the Pacific side of Japan and never, ever consume Japanese seafood.

@Northernlife

Believe you me iam trying not to say anything about it .

So on that note i will end it by saying no i don't have any expertise in the field.

Perhaps someone will catch these so called experts in thier lies .

What would happen if the sea water evaporates, get condensed in clouds and rains in our gardens and patios?

Am I getting paranoid?!

What would happen if the sea water evaporates, get condensed in clouds and rains in our gardens and patios?

Am I getting paranoid?!

Yes.

Tritium already exists in sea water, partly through nature and partly from release from nuclear power stations around the world. For example, the first link below shows tritium concentrations in the sea around Ireland.

The amount of water being released from Fukushima is tiny compared to the volume of water in the ocean, From the second link below:

The Pacific Ocean is fairly large – the North Pacific, the location of this discharge, holds 331 million cubic km of water. This is 400 billion times as voluminous as the water being held at Fukushima. If we mix the 760 TBq of tritium into 331 million billion cubic meters [1] of water, we end up with a tritium concentration of 0.0023 Bq of tritium per cubic meter of water. This is not enough to hurt anybody – or any creature living in the water. 

Some people have raised concerns about radioactive materials in the water other than tritium. However, these will not evaporate. The concern is that they will be consumed by fish. My understanding is that the quantity of such materials remaining is almost nil.

https://inis.iaea.org/collection/NCLCollectionStore/_Public/44/122/44122589.pdf

https://www.acsh.org/news/2021/04/23/tritiated-water-fukushima%C2%A0-be-discharged-pacific-15496

I suggest you read Taki Mata's comments above and not Kyo-wa-heiwa-dayo-ne's.

Kyo wa hayo....

In actual fact i have a certification in hazmat and ran a business for almost 30 years in the hydrocarbon industry.

So i don't need to read some BS study

Then you should know just how harmless the water in the tanks is and the panic is just BS generated by what is left of the fishing industry in Fukushima as they fear the public won't buy their fish because they think they will grow an extra head. There are far greater things to worry about than this extremely low level contaminated water being released into the pacific. The smoke released in just one dayfrom just one of Japan's coal fired power stations for example. But the words "radiation" and "radioactive" equate with Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Not X rays and bananas.

Then you should know just how harmless the water in the tanks is and the panic is just BS generated by what is left of the fishing industry in Fukushima

Of course you're correct although i suspect the fishing industry know its safe.

Maybe they're more scared about the damage to their industry by the toxic bilious nonsense being spewed out by conspiracy theorists, the anti science brigade, and keyboard warriors who are positively deluded in their idea that they know what they are talking about.

I feel sorry for the local Fishing Industry there...now, no one will purchase their products - directly, unless rebranded under another area's name (which will happen).

I think, no one, Globally, trusts whatever TEPCO tells us. They have a huge PR issue to deal with, and if anything goes awry with this dumping of treated water, then they're going to have a huge issue - one that current Politicians probably don't care about, as they'll be long dead by then.

And maybe you are not aware that, after the stored water was said to be safe the first time, just tritium water, it was discovered that there was also strontium and other radioactive stuff in some tanks. Tepco admitted this in 2018.

@Farmboy,

Was the water "said to be safe" or simply "hoped to be safe"? I think it was still subject to testing which was done and problems were found. Is that not how things should proceed?