Japan begins dumping water from the Fukushima nuclear power plant into the Pacific Ocean

Japan began dumping contaminated water from the damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant in the Pacific Ocean on Thursday. after being treated to remove most of the radioactive waste, a process that will take decades and continues to spark protests inside and outside the country.

The spill started around 1:00 PM (04:00 GMT) today after final checks were made on the water pumps and some valves were opened manually, as announced by the company responsible for the damaged installation, TEPCO.

“Each process must be done very firmly. Under the direction of the government, we will fulfill our responsibilityJunichi Matsumoto, head of the initiative, said at a press conference where he also explained that if some kind of anomaly were discovered, the spill would stop.

Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO), the operator of the plant, decided to proceed with the dumping on Thursday after ensuring that the concentration of radioactive waste was within limits and that there were no irregularities in the systems after the launch today through Korea. from the north of an alleged spacecraft, which caused the temporary activation of the anti-missile alert in the south of the Japanese archipelago.

The dumping of water started more than twelve years after the nuclear crisis the earthquake and tsunami that hit this part of Japan in 2011and is performed after undergoing a purification process through a circuit called ALPS (Advanced Liquid Processing System).

Japan’s executive decided in 2021 to resort to controlled discharges into the sea as a way to dispose of the contaminated fluid that accumulates in nuclear facilities, where space is becoming scarce for the large tanks that store it, and what if a fundamental step is considered to be the dismantling of the plant.

Contaminated water is treated with the ALPS system, which can completely remove 62 types of radioactive materials, with the exception of tritium and carbon-14. The dumping process will be overseen by Japanese authorities and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to ensure it meets safety standards.

According to what TEPCO said today, a recent analysis has verified that the tritium concentration is “well below” the national standard for the discharge to be conducted and “confirmed that it is diluted as expected”.

After the spill, the company will also send a vessel to monitor the area and water conditions.although it has not specified when this process will begin today and will publish the data in real time on its website to “ensure transparency”.

The first discharge will last 17 days and will release approximately 7,800 tonnes of water. However, because the production of contaminated water cannot be completely stopped during the decommissioning process of the plant, the discharge is expected to last about 30 years.

Firm rejection of the spill

The National Federation of Fisheries Cooperatives continues to firmly reject this plan, arguing that the measure will deter Fukushima fishermen from ridding themselves of the radioactive stigma attached to their catches since 2011.

Some sectors of Japanese society, voices of the international scientific community and environmental organizations such as Greenpeace, who consider the security guarantees presented as insufficient, in addition to neighboring countries, especially China.

That same Thursday, several environmental and anti-nuclear citizen platforms called new demonstrations in different parts of Japan to protest the measure. Similar rallies were also organized in Seoul, just like previous days. (JO)

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