2023-08-28 15:00:00
POLLUTION – Japan began dumping more than a million tonnes of radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean on Thursday, according to Japanese authorities, “purified” from the remains of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
Since the tsunami destroyed the Fukushima Daiichi power plant in 2011, 1.3 million tons of water, equivalent to 540 Olympic swimming pools, have already been stored in the holding tanks, which were already 97% full. .
This water will be discharged into the sea in several times, starting with small quantities and with a higher level of control. The first spill, of 7,800 cubic meters (7.8 million liters), the equivalent of three Olympic swimming pools, will take 17 days. In total, the Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) expects the whole process to take around 30 years.
This decision has sparked protests in the country and criticism from China, which considers it unacceptable, although the rejection has received the agreement of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
China condemns spill
In a statement from the Foreign Ministry, China said it strongly opposes Tokyo’s decision and condemns it. She considers that the spillage of contaminated water, which can be assimilated to radioactive waste, is an important nuclear security issue whose implications go beyond Japan’s borders: it is therefore an international matter.
The spokesperson for China’s nuclear safety administration called the Japanese government’s decision a“extremely selfish and irresponsible”placing “its own interests above the welfare of mankind”.
Beijing announces that it will take the necessary measures to protect the marine environment (China and Japan share, among other things, direct access to the East China Sea), food security and public health and that it will monitor close to the level of radiation in the waters after the first spill.
For its part, the Chinese General Administration of Customs then announced that it is banning the import of aquatic products from Japan. “to prevent contaminated food from entering the country and to protect Chinese consumers.”
The Asian giant is by far Japan’s largest customer for seafood products, accounting for 42% of all Japanese exports.
In South Korea, the government did not criticize Japan’s decision to discharge contaminated water. Han Duck-soo simply requested that information about the operation be published. “in a transparent and responsible way over the next thirty years”.
However, the reaction of public opinion and the political opposition is quite different.
Well-attended protests sprung up in Seoul. About 10 people were arrested as they tried to enter the Japanese embassy to protest the rejections. The Open Democratic Party has come out strongly against the operation led by Tepco.
Is the leak dangerous?
According to the results of the tests carried out by the Japanese operator and published on Thursday, the water would contain approximately 63 becquerels of tritium (unit of measurement of radioactive activity) per liter, which is lower than the limit of 10,000 becquerels per liter set. by the World Health Organization (WHO) for drinking water.
Tritium is a radioactive isotope of hydrogen considered harmless, according to the company, because it emits very low levels of radiation and does not accumulate or concentrate in the human body.
On the other hand, the IAEA also issued a statement indicating that its independent on-site analysis confirmed that the tritium concentration was well below the limit. “There will be no health effects. There is no scientific basis. There is no reason to ban imports of Japanese food products”added Geraldine Thomas, former professor of molecular pathology at theImperial College From london.
Critics of dumping operations say the lack of long-term data makes it difficult to say with certainty that tritium does not pose a threat to human health or the marine environment.
Risks not “fully” assessed?
The non-governmental organization Greenpeace stated that the radiological risks had not been fully assessed and that the biological impacts of tritium, carbon-14, strontium-90 and iodine-129, which will be released as part of the landfill, “have been ignored”.
Demonstrations have taken place in Japan and South Korea, although the government in Seoul has assured that the water spill was harmless. Shortly before the spill began, several dozen people gathered outside Tepco’s headquarters in Tokyo, holding banners with slogans such as “Do not dump contaminated water into the sea”.
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