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© 2023 AFPThe controversial plan to release Fukushima plant's wastewater
By Harumi OZAWA FUKUSHIMA©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.
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© 2023 AFP
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japancat
If tepco ( small letters !! ) says its safe.....well it must be safe right ? !!!!!!! God help us !!!
GillislowTier
Something has to be done with the waste and since we don’t have the technology level to just launch it into space/ the sun (which is harder than most would imagine) what should we do.
problem is TEPCO and the central government are the last people I trust with “facts” on this stuff. Not only incompetent but outright denying facts, slow to react, and preferring yes men to people who tell it like it is.
Sheikh Yerboaby
Yeah....they were warned that they needed to be raised so that they would be operational even after a flood....that was quietly ignored and they built them at ground level....
Sheikh Yerboaby
What exactly do you armchair experts propose they do then? They are at 96% capacity....having the water stored en-masse in tanks above ground runs the risk of a catastrophic failure happening in the event of another earthquake, and all the radioactive water being released at once and flooding the nearby land. The scientists have said it's safe.....the water HAS to go somewhere, it can't be stored indefinitely in those tanks for the rest of time.....the proposed dilution is 40 times more dilute than the IAEA's permitted standards.....what else can be done?
Personally though I think they should build a bigger pipe! 1km offshore isn't very far. Can radioactive isotopes be washed ashore again? That would be a problem. Another couple of worries is that 1. TEPCO are the ones in charge of doing this. Making sure that the filtration and dilution is done to the agreed standards.....they don't exactly have the best track record of trust. 2. Japan's murky governmental machinations......it wouldn't be the first time a brown envelope has been passed for ministers to look the other way.....trust is pretty thin on the ground here.
If the IAEA personally were in charge of disposing this water, with UN/international oversight, I'd feel a whole lot better that it's being carried out properly.
Talking about "only Japan could dump this water"....what absolute garbage! The US, UK, China.....pretty much most industrial countries get away with unsafe dumping practices every day. Michigan water anyone? UK sewage discharge??
Sanjinosebleed
The joys of nuclear waste and unregulated safety on nuclear sites...yet the cronies at the LDP want to start them up again...the mind boggles! Japan needs a bit more activism!
dbsaiya
If it's safe and if you want to address the concerns of local industry, and neighboring countries, barge it and release it in Tokyo Bay. Winners all around.
Open-minded
Wasn't there an article yesterday about relying on the Fukushima fishing industry?
I will pass!
Yrral
They found traces of radioactive isotopes in fishes off California,linked to Fukushima reactors
jo6pac
deanzaZZRToday 04:49 am JST
Yes design by Amerikas GE
deanzaZZR
Diesel backup generators were on site. They simply were swamped by the tsunami and made inoperable. This obviously was a terrible design.
deanzaZZR
I simply do not believe that standards will be kept after the first month or so when nobody outside the government is paying attention. Cost cutting will take place. Short cuts will be made. People will make mistakes. Why would anyone trust the Nuclear Regulation Authority and the Japanese nuclear power industry at this point?
cleo
Why can’t it be recycled? Used again and again to cool the reactor.
ClippetyClop
Not as dense or as selfish as you
Are you saying that this is going to continue to happen for another 40 years and we should accept it? When is the next release planned? And the one after that? Maybe you can have a fireworks display, make it part of your 'culture'.
Japan's problem, don't make your failures everyone's problem.
blimeylimey
Are you dense or something? They are almost at capacity. What do you propose - that they keep building tanks endlessly for the next 40 years until the plant is decommissioned?
smithinjapan
Tokyo-gaijin: "Dumping of nuclear waste and heavy metals into the oceans has been going on for many years."
Ah! Phew! Then it all cancels itself out and is perfectly okay then!
smithinjapan
Japan will soon be the single-largest ocean polluter in world history, and with nuclear waste to boot. Ban all Japanese exports, needless to say marine products first and foremost, and forever. They'll still force-feed it to the nations school kids after paying off fisherman to "cooperate and understand", but the world should not indulge in Japan's lies and fantasy while it pollutes the ocean for its own mistakes.
Todd
Ricky Kaminski13, the problem is as much as I think about it, I don't really know.
But I do know that putting it in the Ocean, it is going to spread.
I am not some activist but a bit of a realist.
Once again, if they are so sure about it, convince us, don't force us to understand.
Convince by leading with bathing, drinking and cooking in it constantly.
I know that if you diluted cyanide in a big jar of water, I wouldn't drink it. And if you diluted it more by putting that same amount of cyanide in a 5 gallon bucket, I still wouldn't drink it.
I know that you might think that how can I say what I do without a solution but
just because I don't have the solution does not mean that it makes dumping it this way right.
I have even though about the space thing xin xin says. I don't know how or how far but I am sure that somebody like Elon could figure this out. I don't know that this would work either.
Eppee
Tokyo-gaijinToday 05:39 pm JST
Yeah I've always dumped my trash in front of my cityhall, why should I stop ?!
Oh and I also don't recycle my plastic why should I not dump my trash everywhere ?
That just makes no sense ...
Dump it in Lake Inawashiro ?
Ricky Kaminski13
Todd, ok will bite. What do you suggest?
xin xin
Best is to shoot it into outer space. Second-best is into the ocean. Putting it concentrated on land is the worst. Radioactivity is not any worse than other forms of pollution, e.g. lead, mercury, PCB, etc. It is far less harmful than the COVID virus. The radioactivity issue is way overblown.
Todd
TEPCO and the Japanese Government are liars. If what they are trying to sell is true, why is it that they haven't proved what they say by drinking only that water over the last 10 years? Why haven't they bathed in only that water over the last 10 years?
They talk about gaining the Fukushima's trust and understanding. No they don't. They just want to force this upon the people there.
It will be released kilometer out? So what? Have they ever heard about currents? What about the algae, plankton, fish, etc. that breath that in? The fish that eat that fish? Swim around? Migration? And on and on and on???
Dilution? Yeah right. Ok, any of you above speaking out for this, let's get some of this cesium, strontium, and tritium that TEPCO, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the Japanese Government say is safe and you and your family for the next year, cook with this, bath with this and drink this.
If N. Korea, Myanmar, Cambodia or countries like this were to do something so stupid like this, the world would be screaming. Because it's Japan, you think it's alright?
IT'S NOT!!!
Your next food source will be from this one way or another.
Yes, many of you will give me negatives for this but this is a serious question. If you really believe in this, step up to the plate and show me and all of those in Fukushima.
Mark
At some point this water has to go somewhere, and if treated to safe levels as stated by the IAEA and TEPCO then I see NO problem releasing it into ocean.
Stephen Chin
And, it is going to take nearly 50 years to release tons and tons and mega tons and mega tons of nuclear-contaminated-water into the Pacific Ocean? Are all oceans in the world not connected? Are there no ocean currents cocktailling all waters in the world? Will the poisoned waters not evaporate in the tropics to bring cancer-causing rain to all countries in the world? And during the 50 year release, all humans will have to stop eating all fish? And after 50 years, can Japan convince the world that it will be safe for humans to eat fish? Why does Japan not keep the carcinogenic water in storage as now? As a coubtry has Japan no conscience?!???!!?
Ricky Kaminski13
It ain’t good news, nor is it ideal, and the whole thing is the direct result of some idiot(s) deciding it was unnecessary to have a backup generator on site when the terrible tsunami hit. But ( and this is a big but ) you have to deal with tough situations and reality, so all those with the daggers out, trying to make it political, or saying no, no no…..
we are all ears waiting for your well thought out, viable and doable alternative solution.
Don’t have one?
Carry on folks, nothing to see here apart from the usual sad types and the likes of China or Korea using it throw more scorn. Really helpful.
Do what has to be done, support those who’s livelihoods were destroyed to get back on their feet , and just make sure it never happens again.
Fuzzy
Anyone else struggle to look at that photo? Gives me a headache.
jeancolmar
Let Kishida and the LDP and the rightists swim in that radiated water and then drink it.
kurisupisu
A ‘controversial plan’ that releases radionuclides that cause cancer and genetic damage…
Spitfire
I remember well when the tsunami first hit.
In Japan the rightists said, 'don't worry our superior technology will deal with the problem accordingly.'
Roll on 12 years and they are going to release it into the sea.
How the mighty have fallen.
Mr Kipling
in a nutshell....
Dilution is the solution.... just get on with it!
Tokyo-gaijin
Dumping of nuclear waste and heavy metals into the oceans has been going on for many years. Dumping this water is probably much less harmful to the planets ecology than all the waste plastic being used and dumped.
Michael Machida
Japan's global image just keeps on getting worse and worse due to this radioactive water being dumped in our fresh oceans among the fish we eat.
Jim
The livelihood of Fukushima fishermen will just get from bad to worse! They have suffered so much and will continue to suffer from this release.
How Japan gets a pass in releasing this water into the ocean is beyond belief. If any other country had tried this then the US and Japan would have been the first to condemn them. But since it’s Japan they just get away with anything thanks to their puppet masters USA!
lunatic
It is not just wastewarer, it is radioactivewater.
It was in direct contact with the naked core of a nuclear plant.