Japan began discharging contaminated water from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (Japanese government name ‘treated water’) from around 1:00 pm on the 24th.
According to Japanese media, Tokyo Electric Power Co., Ltd. reported that it started releasing contaminated water stored in the tank after preliminary work on the same day according to the Japanese government’s decision to discharge the water on the 22nd.
It has been 2 years and 4 months since then-Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga decided to discharge the contaminated water into the ocean in April 2021, and it has been about 12 and a half years since the Fukushima nuclear accident occurred due to the Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11, 2011.
TEPCO passed through the multi-nuclide removal facility ( ALPS ) and diluted the contaminated water stored in the storage tank at the site of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant with seawater and discharged it to the sea off the nuclear power plant through an undersea tunnel about 1 km long.
Purification treatment with ALPS can remove 62 radioactive substances including cesium, but nuclides such as tritium and carbon 14, although in trace amounts, remain.
TEPCO decided to dilute tritium, which cannot be filtered out with ALPS, with seawater to make the concentration less than 1,500 becquerels per liter, or 1/40 of the Japanese regulatory standard .
TEPCO has already sent about 1 ton of contaminated water to a dilution facility on the afternoon of the 22nd, mixed it with seawater, and put it in a large water tank.
TEPCO explained that the concentration of tritium in the contaminated water diluted in advance before discharge and stored in the tank was measured at 43 to 63 becquerels (㏃) per liter, which is well below its own standard of 1,500 ㏃.
The Japanese government plans to regularly check the concentration of tritium in the seawater near the nuclear power plant after the release.
The results of measuring the concentration of tritium in samples taken from the nearby sea immediately after release will be released on the 27th at the earliest.
TEPCO plans to discharge about 460 tons of contaminated water a day by diluting it with seawater for 17 days, and initially discharge 7,800 tons of contaminated water into the sea.
However, TEPCO predicted that the amount of discharge per day would be 200 to 210 tons as the discharge started in the afternoon on this day.
The amount of contaminated water expected to be discharged by March next year is 31,200 tons, which is 2.3% of the currently stored contaminated water.
At the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, about 1.34 million tons of contaminated water are already contained in about 1,000 large tanks, and even now, additional contaminated water is generated due to groundwater and rainwater flowing into the nuclear power plant site.
As a result, the discharge of contaminated water is expected to continue for about 30 years, but it is difficult to confirm the discharge period in the future.
The Japanese government aims to shut down the accident reactor by 2041-2051, but it is also uncertain because the shutdown is not easy in reality. The International Atomic Energy Agency ( IAEA
), which has checked the safety of discharge, monitors and evaluates whether the contaminated water discharged from the site meets safety standards from the first day of discharge, and discloses the monitoring data in real time. The IAEA said it will “stay on site” as long as the discharge of contaminated water continues, and plans to provide radiation monitoring data, dilution and tritium concentrations through a web page that provides real-time data. However, opposition from Japanese fishermen and some neighboring countries such as China continues. The National Federation of Fisheries Cooperatives (Jeoneoryun), a Japanese fishermen’s organization, said on the same day, “The position that we oppose ocean release has not changed at all스포츠토토.”
After meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on the 22nd, Chairman Masanobu Sakamoto of Jeoneoryon expressed his opposition to ocean discharge.
The fishermen and consumers I met in Iwaki, one of the representative cities of Fukushima Prefecture, about 60 km away from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, did not hide their anxiety.
Fukushima residents and lawyers who opposed the discharge held a press conference the day before and announced that they would file a lawsuit to the Fukushima District Court (District Court) on the 8th of next month demanding the cancellation of the plan to release the contaminated water into the sea and the suspension of the discharge.
In particular, the Chinese government, which has opposed the ocean discharge of contaminated water from Fukushima, strongly protested by announcing a complete ban on imports of Japanese seafood.
China’s General Administration of Customs (Customs) said, “In order to prevent the risk of radioactive contamination brought by the release of nuclear-contaminated water to food safety, protect the health of Chinese consumers, and ensure the safety of imported food, imports of aquatic products originating from Japan are restricted from today. completely stopped,” he said.