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Page added on September 14, 2015
Fukushima Dumps First Batch of Radioactive Water In Sea
No.1 (L) and No.2 reactor buildings are seen at Kyushu Electric Power’s Sendai nuclear power station in Satsumasendai, Kagoshima prefecture in Japan on July 8, 2015. Kyushu Electric Power Co. started loading uranium fuel rods into a reactor this summer, marking the first attempt to reboot Japan’s nuclear industry in nearly two years after the sector was shutdown following the 2011 Fukushima disaster.
Japan’s crippled Fukushima nuclear plant Monday began releasing previously contaminated water into the sea, but the man tasked with preventing another meltdown warned other highly radioactive fluid still stored on site could pose a major threat.
Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO), which operates the plant in eastern Japan, discharged 850 tons of formerly contaminated water it had extracted from the ground near the plant into the sea, saying a filtration process had now made it safe.
Since the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, people have been quick to blame radiation levels across the Pacific on the deteriorating power plant. Is the radiation spreading that far, and is there any way to tell if it’s actually from Japan?
Monday was the first time the plant, whose reactors went into meltdown after being hit by a huge tsunami in 2011, has released once radioactive water into nature after a years-long battle with fishermen, who feared it could destroy their livelihood.
But Dale Klein, the chairman of a committee created to ensure the nuclear meltdown is never repeated, said other highly radioactive water used to cool the reactors four years ago and which is still kept in tanks in the plant could be dangerous.
“The risk that you run is that you have all these tanks full of water,” Klein told AFP in an interview.
“The longer you store the water, the more likely you are going to have (an) uncontrolled release,” he said, adding that he would like to see the supplies released from storage in the next three years.
TEPCO has faced criticism for its handling of the meltdown, which saw thousands of people evacuated as radiation poisoned the air, land and water and has already cost some $57 billion in compensation for residents.
Four years later it is still extracting some 300 tons of contaminated water from the ground every day, which had been stored in tanks before TEPCO started releasing it into the sea after purification on Monday.
‘Long-term solution’
The move is a milestone for the company, which said its Advanced Liquid Processing System, which removes highly radioactive substances like strontium and caesium, meant the ground water was now safe to release into the natural environment.
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Stop Worrying About Fukushima Radiation
Since the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, people have been quick to blame radiation levels across the Pacific on the deteriorating power plant. Is the radiation spreading that far, and is there any way to tell if it’s actually from Japan?
Fishermen had argued that the discharge even of the groundwater would heighten contamination concerns and hurt their already battered reputation.
They had fought to stop the water being released into the sea, even after it is filtered, but eventually bowed to pressure from TEPCO, which is struggling to find space to store the tainted supplies.
But it has yet to find a solution to deal with another highly radioactive 680,000 tons of water that was used to cool the reactors during the meltdown, which is still stored on site.
Fishermen are opposed to the fluid being released into the sea, even after it is filtered.
“I would much rather see Japan move to a long-term solution of the controlled release, rather than have an unexpected release” that could be caused by pipebreaks or other failures, said Klein.
Torrential flooding this month in an area not far south of the plant added to contamination concerns, flushing away at least 293 plastic bags of plants and soil that had been collected in the clean up.
The tsunami, following a 9.0 magnitude quake, triggered the world’s worst nuclear disaster in a generation and prompted Tokyo to shut down the 50 reactors nationwide used to generate electricity.
This month saw the evacuation order lifted for Naraha, the first of seven municipalities fully emptied after the explosion whose residents can return permanently, but the full clean up is expected take decades.
20 Comments on "Fukushima Dumps First Batch of Radioactive Water In Sea"
SilentRunning on Mon, 14th Sep 2015 7:05 pm
filtering the water by ion exchange, and then putting it in the ocean is clearly the way to go here – provided they can filter it faster than it leaks in.
It’s true that some tritium will be passed through – but tritium is a low risk radio-nucleotide.
Rodster on Mon, 14th Sep 2015 8:36 pm
Based on how TEPCO has handled this disaster i’d be a little skeptical they’ll get this right.
Makati1 on Mon, 14th Sep 2015 8:54 pm
Now just imagine the other 434+ nuclear reactors doing the same thing after the crash and there is no one to keep them under control or the equipment running.
Most, if not all, are located along waterways/rivers or oceans that will ensure their radioactivity gets distributed.
But then, radioactivity from the nukes that could rain from the sky will be faster and more deadly. Imagine a nuke hitting one of those reactor sites with thousands of tons of used fuel in those glorified swimming pools. Would make Hiroshima seem like a firecracker. The fuel would not make the explosion greater, but the fallout would be magnified tremendously.
Makati1 on Mon, 14th Sep 2015 8:59 pm
BTW: I would doubt the filtration was anything more than eyewash for publication. So far, they have not done anything they promised, after four years, except to kill more of their laborers.
“…is there any way to tell if it’s actually from Japan?” is their cover.
SilentRunning on Mon, 14th Sep 2015 9:16 pm
Fortunately, Makati1, it is easy to tell if TEPCO is really doing the filtering – just monitor the water at Fukushima bay. If you see a big new influx of Cs-137, etc – then you know their filtering is a sham.
I would encourage environmental groups to do just that. Verification keeps people honest.
SilentRunning on Mon, 14th Sep 2015 9:17 pm
I just did the math, and it seems that the 875 TBq of tritium at the Fukushima site can be be diluted to EPA safe levels of 3000Bq/gallon by the act of diluting it in 290
SilentRunning on Mon, 14th Sep 2015 9:21 pm
I just did the math, and it seems that the 875 TBq of tritium at the Fukushima site can be be diluted to EPA safe levels of 3000Bq/gallon by the act of diluting it in 290 billion gallons of water.
That’s a huge number, but it’s worth remembering that every cubic mile of ocean water contains 1.1 TRILLION gallons. Therefore, just by diluting the Fukushima water in a single cubic mile of water will already shrink the radiation level to about 1/4 the accepted safe level of tritium contamination.
SilentRunning on Mon, 14th Sep 2015 9:28 pm
One final comment: If you’re scared by the Fukushima tritium – then you should be positively frightened to death by the fact every single year 148,000 TBq of tritum are released to earth’s atmosphere EVERY YEAR.
What is the malevolent source of this sinister radiation?? Why it is none other than *cosmic rays* coming from space, striking the atmosphere and generating tritium atoms, by reactions with nitrogen atoms.
So this year, and every year, nature releases over 170 times the amount potentially released by Fukushima.
Fat Lady on Mon, 14th Sep 2015 11:36 pm
“Fukushima dumps first batch of radioactive water” What bullshit. this has been ongoing for years now with no end in site.
Makati1 on Tue, 15th Sep 2015 12:44 am
Silent, you obviously work for the nuclear industry … or are heavily invested in the killer industry.
GregT on Tue, 15th Sep 2015 2:14 am
“Silent, you obviously work for the nuclear industry … or are heavily invested in the killer industry.”
No doubt. The only comments that SR ever makes here on PO.com are all pro-nuclear. SR has an agenda.
Davy on Tue, 15th Sep 2015 5:27 am
Silent is an important counterbalance to the hysteria and doom we hear regularly with NUK issues. Personally I am on the doom side of the subject. Anything NUK scares me and I feel any level of radiation is bad. Sure natural radiation is bad but that is life. Our additions to natural levels is hubris. The whole NUK adventure by humans was a folly of a species with little ability to control itself. That said I want to hear both sides of the story. I hope to feel less doom than I do on the subject.
Kenz300 on Tue, 15th Sep 2015 9:32 am
Nuclear energy is too costly and too dangerous……
TEPCO and the government of Japan have not been honest and forthcoming from the beginning of the disaster. Can they be trusted NOW?
It is time to end the reliance on nuclear energy and move to safer, cleaner and cheaper wind and solar energy solutions.
A 40 year clean up plan that TEPCO admits the technology for the eventual clean up does not exist and will have to be invented.
The world should not be in situation……. Wind and solar energy production continues to get cheaper and more productive every year.
New Report: America’s Solar Energy Margin Surging – Renewable Energy World
http://blog.renewableenergyworld.com/ugc/blogs/2015/09/new_report_america.html
apneaman on Tue, 15th Sep 2015 7:26 pm
“Countless” dead birds reported in Pacific off US coast, nothing will eat the bodies — “There are no seals present” — Expert: “The fish are not there… all of them are starving” — Animals “acting weird, sick and weak, too weak to fly, too weak to run” — Resident: We want to know if it’s from Fukushima (VIDEO)
http://enenews.com/countless-dead-birds-reported-pacific-coast-seals-present-expert-fish-all-starving-animals-acting-weird-sick-weak-weak-fly-weak-run-related-fukushima-video
SilentRunning on Tue, 15th Sep 2015 9:29 pm
GregT wrote:
>“Silent, you obviously work for the nuclear industry … or are heavily invested in the killer industry.”
No, I work as an engineer in a totally unrelated industry. As for my investments – It’s true that I have a *small* position in GE (as a result of an inheritance). I actually have more money in SolarCity than I do in GE.
>No doubt. The only comments that SR ever makes here on PO.com are all pro-nuclear. SR has an agenda.
I’m surprised to learn that I have a pro-nuke agenda. Here I thought my position was largely anti-nuclear. I would prefer that we shudder our existing nuke plants, while we figure out how the safest way to keep the nuclear crap that we have created out of the biosphere (some of which stays dangerous for *geological* time spans.)
But what really ticks me off is when I see some my anti-nuke brethern making wild ass claims that can only hurt the movement – like that the entire Pacific ocean is going to become a seething radioactive cesspit as a result of Fukushima. Well folks, that kind of hysteria only HURTS the anti-nuke position, because in the long run – when it doesn’t happen, then the true gung-ho pro-nuke side will say “see – there isn’t any real problem”
SilentRunning on Tue, 15th Sep 2015 9:39 pm
It’s preferable that TEPCO dumps the filtered water into the ocean, rather than waiting for another disaster to happen (earthquake, tsunami, tank rupture, etc) – and have a massive dump of UNFILTERED even more radioactive water gush into the ocean.
apneaman on Tue, 15th Sep 2015 9:50 pm
I was just messing with ya with the ENE link. I think TEPCO and the industry lies, but those people are sensationalists. I guessed you were an engineer or similar. II don’t really see any urgency or any concern at all regarding SLR. I don’t think there is any real plan. Deal with it later.
Ace on Wed, 16th Sep 2015 9:49 am
SilentRunning
>148,000 TBq of tritum are released to earth’s atmosphere EVERY YEAR
I read once that the tritium created by cosmic rays only accounts for a small amount in our environment now days, because so much was released during thermal nuclear weapons test. Since testing stopped, more tritium decays each year than is being created by nature. Before man learned how to split the atom,there must have been an equilibrium where the amount of tritium created is equal to the amount that decays annually. It would be an interesting mathematical exercise to figure out how much tritium is needed to reach this equilibrium.
Ace on Wed, 16th Sep 2015 10:09 pm
Thought I’d take a crack at it. Please feel free to correct my math.
148000 TBq/(1-0.5^(1 year/12.32 years)) =
2.705 million TBq
http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=148000+TBq+%2F+%281-.5%5E%281+year%2Ftritium+half+life%29%29
Kenz300 on Thu, 17th Sep 2015 10:08 am
Climate Change is real and will impact all of us….
It is time to stop using our oceans as a trash dump…
Ocean Fish Populations Cut In Half Since The 1970s: Report
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/crucial-marine-populations-cut-in-half-since-the-1970s-report_55f9ecd2e4b00310edf5b1b2?ir=Green§ion=green&utm_hp_ref=green