On Thursday, Japan began releasing wastewater from the wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant, a procedure that it believes is safe but has sparked a heated protest from China.
The start of the release of approximately 540 ‘Olympic swimming pools’ worth of water into the Pacific over several decades is a significant step toward decommissioning the still extremely dangerous site 12 years after one of the world’s worst nuclear accidents.
TEPCO offered live video of experts behind computer screens and an official indicating, after a countdown, that “valves near the seawater transport pumps are opening.”
The UN atomic watchdog, which has approved the proposal, was supposed to be on site for the procedure, while TEPCO technicians were supposed to take water samples later on Thursday.
Before the operation, about ten people protested near the site, while approximately 100 more gathered outside TEPCO headquarters in Tokyo, according to AFP journalists.
“It’s like dumping an atomic bomb in the ocean. Japan is the first country that was attacked with an atomic bomb in the world, and the prime minister of the country made this decision,” said Kenichi Sato, 68.
China’s environment ministry slammed Japan’s plan as “extremely selfish and irresponsible” on Thursday, saying it would “track and study” the impact on its waters.
Several meltdowns
TEPCO has stated that with over 1,000 steel containers containing the water, it needs to create room for the removal of highly dangerous radioactive nuclear fuel and wreckage from the wrecked reactors.
Following a major earthquake and tsunami that killed around 18,000 people in 2011, three reactors at the Fukushima-Daiichi site in northeastern Japan went into meltdown.
TEPCO has collected 1.34 million cubic meters of contaminated water while it cooled the crippled reactors, as well as groundwater and rain that has seeped in since then.
TEPCO will deliver treated water four times between Thursday and March 2024. The initial discharge will take approximately 17 days.
TEPCO added that around 5 trillion becquerels of tritium will be discharged this fiscal year.
Japan asserts that all radioactive elements have been filtered out except tritium, the amounts of which are innocuous and lower than those released by functioning Fukushima nuclear power plants, including those in China.
Most experts agree with this.
“When released into the Pacific, the tritium is further diluted into a vast body of water and would quickly get to a radioactivity level which is not discernibly different from normal seawater,” said Tom Scott from the University of Bristol in England.
“Hence, it poses very little risk and the risk itself decreases with time due to the relatively short radioactive half-life… meaning that the amount of tritium (and hence the risk) continually reduces.”
Release of Fukushima wastewater: China has accused Japan of treating the Pacific as a “sewer”
Greenpeace, for example, claims that the filtration process is defective, and China and Russia propose that the water be vaporized and released into the atmosphere instead.
China has accused Japan of treating the Pacific as a “sewer,” and even before the publication, Beijing had prohibited food imports from 10 of 47 Japanese prefectures and enforced radiation controls.
This week, Hong Kong and Macau, both Chinese territories, followed likewise.
Restaurants providing sushi and sashimi in Beijing and Hong Kong are already suffering as a result of the limitations.
“About 80 percent of the seafood products we use come from Japan,” Hong Kong caterer Jasy Choi, who runs a small kitchen for takeaway Japanese food, told AFP.
“If more than half of my Japan-imported ingredients are affected, then it would be difficult for me to continue to operate.”
According to analysts, while China may have genuine safety concerns, its robust reaction is also motivated, at least in part, by its economic competition and relations with Japan.
The South Korean government, which is trying to enhance relations with Japan, has not complained, despite the fact that many ordinary citizens are concerned and have conducted protests.
False allegations regarding the release of wastewater have been made on social media in China and South Korea, including doctored photographs of dead fish related to Fukushima.