About 1,5 tons of water from the tanks of Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant will gradually be discharged into the Pacific Ocean tomorrow. The enormous quantity of water served to cool the three reactors damaged by the 2011 tsunami. The release into the ocean will take place very slowly, over about thirty years.
Immediate protest from China accusing Japan "use the Pacific as its own trash can". The fish trade is in danger because the psychological effect is disruptive. There are, in fact, protests in Hong Kong and South Korea. Beijing has made it known through its diplomatic channels that it will take "the necessary measures to safeguard the marine environment, food safety and public health”, because Japan is putting its own interest above the long-term well-being of all mankind”.
Tokyo responded by saying that China already pours far more tritium and carbon into the sea from its nuclear power plants than Japan will release, so it can't lecture anyone. Greenpeace has highlighted that if it is true that all the plants in the world discharge into the sea, we must take into account the fact that Fukushima's water comes from a huge disaster, and not from normal maintenance operations.
Industry experts have told various international media outlets that “nuclear sites around the world, including the UK, US, China and South Korea, discharge diluted wastewater into seas, rivers and lakes. They've been doing it for decades with no significant impact".
To protect the Japanese initiative, the approval of the plan by the International Atomic Energy Agency of the UN.
The intervention will be carried out by the electricity company Tepco which will pour the water into the Pacific. The same company has ensured that it has removed 60 radioactive substances, but has admitted that it will pour tritium and carbon-14 isotopes into the ocean, which are more difficult and expensive to eliminate. But it will do so in minimal quantities: the final level of tritium will correspond to 15.000 becquerels per litre, seven times less than what is in water that the World Health Organization considers potable.
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