Japan: Radiation level of water next to Fukushima remains unchanged

levels of water radiation around the rugged center of fukushima remain unchanged after water from the plant began to be released into the Pacific on Thursday, the Japanese Ministry of the Environment said in a statement today.

The concentrations of tritium – a radioactive material that cannot be removed by the system that purifies the contaminated water generated by the plant – in the samples taken on Friday were at levels that “would not have any adverse impact on human health and the environment,” it reads. the text.

Specifically, water was obtained at 11 sampling points located within a 40-kilometre radius of the plant, and at all these points the tritium level was below 7-8 becquerels per liter, a level considered safe.

The head of the portfolio, Akihiro Nishimura, recalled in the statement that his Ministry will continue to obtain samples and publish results every week in order to manage the situation with “objectivity, transparency and reliability.”

The results of the first water samples come a day after the Japanese Fisheries Agency reported that fish caught near the plant after the spill began did not show detectable amounts of tritium when tested.

The Japanese Executive decided in 2021 to resort to controlled discharge into the sea as a way to get rid of the contaminated liquid that accumulates in nuclear facilities, where space is running out for the large tanks that store it, and what is considered a fundamental step to the dismantling of the plant.

Contaminated water is treated with the ALPS system, capable of completely removing 62 types of radioactive materials, with the exception of tritium and carbon-14.

The dumping process will be supervised by the Japanese authorities and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to ensure that it meets international safety standards.

Even so, there have been protests in countries in the region such as South Korea or China, where the authorities have accused the Government of Tokyo of harming the environment and have prohibited imports of fish from Japan.