Controversial plan to dump wastewater from the Fukushima nuclear power plant

Twelve years after a nuclear catastrophe caused by a major earthquake and tsunami, workers at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant in northeast Japan prepare to dump treated wastewater into the sea.

The operator Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings (Tepco) says the water has been filtered to remove most radioactive elements and considers the release safe and necessary, but there has been national and international opposition.

Why is it necessary to release the water?

The site produces 100,000 liters of contaminated water daily. It is a combination of groundwater, rainwater that seeps into the area, and water that is used for cooling.

The water is filtered to remove most radionuclides, and more than 1.32 million tons of treated water was stored at the site as of February.

That represents 96% of storage capacity, so Tepco wants to start releasing the water soon.

Under a plan approved by the central government, the process is expected to start this spring or summer.

It is safe?

Tepco says that various filter systems, including at its ALPS facility, remove most of the 62 radioactive elements in the water, including cesium and strontium, but tritium remains.

Experts say tritium is only harmful to humans in large doses, and Tepco plans to dilute the water to reduce radioactivity levels to 1,500 becquerels per liter, well below the national safety standard of 60,000 becquerels per liter.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has said the release meets international standards and “will not cause any harm to the environment.”

Neighboring countries, including China and South Korea, along with activist groups such as Greenpeace and some local residents strongly oppose the publication.

Local fishermen fear that the release will once again make consumers wary of buying their catch.

“We have suffered reputational damage since the disaster, and we will go through it again, starting from scratch,” said fisherman Masahiro Ishibashi, 43.

How will the water be released?

The operator is building more filtration facilities on shore and a kilometer-long subsea pipeline to release water treated for several decades.

“We don’t plan to release the water in one go, it will be a maximum of 500 tons per day out of the total 1.37 million tons of ALPS-treated water,” said Kenichi Takahara, an official with Tepco.

“It will take between 30 and 40 years, the time necessary to dismantle the plant.”

The operator will limit the amount of tritium radioactivity discharged to 22 trillion becquerels per year, which was the national annual standard for wastewater discharges prior to the accident.

What has been the reaction?

Japanese diplomats have been briefing neighboring countries on the plan, and Tepco is meeting with local residents in an attempt to win support.

His latest project involves keeping fish in the treated water.

“Fish kept in ALPS-treated water…ingest tritium, to a certain extent. But once the animal is transferred to normal seawater, the tritium level in the fish drops rapidly,” Kazuo Yamanaka said. , who is in charge of testing. .

It keeps hundreds of flatfish and other marine creatures in various tanks at the plant, half with regular seawater and the other with treated sewage, diluted to roughly the same level as the liquid to be discharged.

He runs a live stream of the fish on YouTube and plans to expand the tests to algae.

“When we talked to local residents, they said they wanted to see fish living healthy in ALPS-treated water,” he said.

“They said they would feel calmer when they saw it, instead of just seeing data and numbers.”

It’s unclear whether Tepco’s efforts can win over fishing communities still struggling to recover from the disaster.

“I don’t think the Fukushima fisheries will really recover until the day the nuclear plant shuts down,” Ishibashi said.