Illustration: Radioactive tank. (Image via BBC)

Japan should dump Fukushima's waste into the sea: Environment Minister

Alfonsus Adi Putra
Business & Industry
Environmental Energy & Material
Sep 11, 2019
2871
A move that will affect the sea ecosystem and fishermen’s livelihood, Japanese Minister of Environment, Yoshiaki Harada, stated that Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco) was running out of space to store radioactive waste from Fukushima’s nuclear reactors. Then, he offered one simple solution: dump it to the sea.

In March 2011, an M9 earthquake that caused a tsunami shook the northeastern region of Japan, the worst natural disaster to ever hit the East Asia nation. The cooling systems in three reactors at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant were damaged, resulting in the leakage of radioactive materials.

Since then, Tepco has been pumping the water and put it into storage. Now, the storage is running out of space with almost 1,000 contaminated water tanks.

Moreover, these banks are still contaminated by several radionuclides such as tritium since Tepco does not have the technology to process the tritium out of the waters. Tepco, however, stated that they had gotten rid of the most radionuclides from the contaminated water.

According to research by radioactive experts, it will take about 17 years for this water to be diluted before being discharged into the sea. By summer 2022, there will be no room for any contaminated water tank.

“There is no option. Dump it into the sea and dilute it. The government has not thought about it yet, but it is my simple solution,” said Harada in an interview.

However, it was not the decision of the Japanese government. Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary, Yoshihide Suga, described Harada’s comment about the waste as a personal opinion. The Japanese government is also required to keep in mind how the local fishermen had been struggling to re-establish their livelihood after the worst natural disaster.

Should they dump the radioactive waste into the sea, it will not be only the fishermen that will be enraged. The neighboring country, such as South Korea (S. Korea), is going to see red too.

In August, S. Korean Minister for Environmental Affairs, Kwon Se-jung, met with the Head of Economic Affairs at the Japanese Embassy in S. Korea, Tomofumi Nishinaga, to discuss the plan to dump the contaminated water into the Pacific Ocean.

S. Korea and Japan should be cooperating to seek ways to prevent the wastewater from affecting the lives of their fauna and people, suggested Kwon. Despite the trade row between the two nations, Japan and S. Korea should find a way to treat the water for the sake of their people.

“We have asked Japan to take a wise and prudent decision concerning the matter,” said S. Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a statement.

The Japanese government had rolled out ¥34.5 billion to build a frozen wall underground to prevent the water to reach the three damaged reactors. However, it could only reduce the tank from 500 tons to 100 tons daily. Japan is required to solve this problem before 2020 when it is going to host the 2020 Summer Olympics and Paralympics.

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/sep/10/fukushima-japan-will-have-to-dump-radioactive-water-into-pacific-minister-says

Environment , Green , Radioactive , Waste , Asia , Japan , Tsunami , 2011 , Fukushima , S.Korea