Japan to Release Fukushima Wastewater

www.cnn.com...

Japan will begin releasing treated radioactive water from Fukushima into the ocean as early as Thursday, officials announced on Tuesday, following months of heightened public anxiety and pushback from many neighboring countries.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said authorities would go forward with the release on August 24 “if they encounter no obstacles.” The decision was made after the government held a cabinet meeting to discuss the issue.

well I guess they couldn't hold it forever
here's hoping no negative impact.
and calm neighbors.

"Treated" radioactive waste water

The good news is the idiots who built that plant in a known fault line will still be able to afford fish.
The bad news is that we've finally found a way to make the entire ocean toxic

Typical Japanese logic, # the ocean, it's infinite!

a reply to: ElGoobero

On the face of it this seemed really concerning to me, and I still remain skeptical.

The only thing that made me humor there’s a decent plan on this is South Korea sent and approved the plan. SK and Japan have always had rocky relations, I’m sure they’d voice out if this was half baked.

There's a post .in play by MIM already.
If you have an activity update on what's happening and post it mim thread.
Much please .close this thread.

From WIKI:

TEPCO's solution to ocean pollution was dilution. The treatment was initially said to have been effective in removing most of the 62 contaminants in the water, except for tritium, an isotope that was hard to separate from water because it bonded with oxygen. For years tritium, which emits a low level of radiation and supposedly posed a risk to humans only in large doses, was the focus of the cleanup effort. Then in 2018, TEPCO admitted that 80% of its 'treated' water contained other dangerous radionuclides as well - including cesium, cobalt, lithium, and strontium - which far exceeded safe levels for release back into the ocean. In 2020, TEPCO reported that 72% of the water in its tanks needed to be repurified. Some questioned whether the water in the tanks had really been fully cleansed. Dalnoki-Veress said TEPCO had only analyzed small amounts of water from a quarter of its tanks and only measured concentrations of tritium and a limited number of other radionuclides. Ken Buesseler, a senior scientist at the United States’ Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) said tritium could be the “least dangerous” of the radionuclides in the water. For things like cobalt, cesium, and strontium isotopes, some fraction was much more likely to end up associated with the seafloor sediments than tritium. Once put into the ocean, it did not just mix with water. It remained local and started to build up. And the local biota (living organisms of a region or habitat), got higher exposure. Cobalt-60, once released, would accumulate on the seafloor, where clams and oysters would filter the mud and would concentrate the cobalt in their bodies.[53]
There were concerns about the health impacts of long-term, low-dose exposure to tritium as a result of Japan's multi-decade plan to release the wastewater into the sea. Jinbo Party leader Yoon Hee-sook said that the Korean inspection team that visited the treatment facilities had failed to address the biological threat - two times more serious than cesium - that the wastewater discharge plan could cause. [54]
In June 2023, South Korean shoppers rushed to buy up salt and other items prior to the expected release of the treated discharge. The South Korean government had banned seafood from the waters near Fukushima and says it will closely monitor the radioactivity level of salt farms.

We're supposed to just accept the word of officials that there is no danger in releasing this 'treated' wastewater directly into the ocean, even though they have a history of deliberately misleading the public.

Despite repeated denial of leaks,[9] the operator of the nuclear plant, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), on 22 July 2013 finally admitted that leaks to groundwater had been happening, something long suspected.[4][10] It was later determined the leaks came from the water tanks from 2013 to 2014.[1] Since then, TEPCO has had a record of being dishonest on its figures and has lost the public trust.[11][12][13][14] For instance, in 2014, TEPCO blamed its own measuring method and revised the strontium in a groundwater well in July 2013 to be 5 million becquerels per liter, which is 160,000 times the standard for discharge.

This really stands out:

On 13 April 2021, the Cabinet of Prime Minister Suga unanimously approved that TEPCO dump the stored water to the Pacific Ocean over a course of 30 years. The Cabinet asserted the dumped water will be treated and diluted to drinkable standard.

If the water they're going to release is safe for drinking, why not use it to supply water for their cities and farmlands?

Known liars have zero credibility regardless of what the 'experts' say. It doesn't pass the sniff test for me.

originally posted by: musicismagic
There's a post .in play by MIM already.
If you have an activity update on what's happening and post it mim thread.
Much please .close this thread.[/quote

You created a thread in a totally different category, so both are allowed.

Supposedly,every nuke plant in the world releases similar "treated" water,with similar so called "safe" levels of radiation-just not in the amounts Japan have from since the tsunami.

China for example,who is raising hell about this-are happy to release nuke plant water with 6.5 times the levels of tritium of the Japanese release.
japannews.yomiuri.co.jp...

Somehow that is fine.

Wasn't this accident supposed to kill the Pacific ocean?
Like a decade ago?

The nuclear boogyman...😂🤷

It boggles my mind that there is slow to no progress to finding better measures of dealing with nuclear waste in a manner which protects humankind and our planet.



Encasing or burying it in underground tombs/sarcophagus seems wrought with problems as well.

a reply to: quintessentone

We have found better ways to deal with nuclear waste.

a reply to: Bluntone22

And yet they are still burying it or dumping it in the ocean.

originally posted by: quintessentone
a reply to: Bluntone22

And yet they are still burying it or dumping it in the ocean.

Exactly.. because of the radiation boogyman.
Fear and government regulations are stopping progress

a reply to: Bluntone22

wouldn't it be great of some of those bio-engineers working on Covid gain-of-function type stuff would turn their attention to maybe developing a bacterium that could convert this stuff into neutral materials.

one theory is that Godzilla was a product of such research as he consumes radioactive stuff.

To be honest, the impact on the ocean will be orders of magnitude less than the levels of pollution spewing out from China. People see radioactivity, and they think the worst, although the sea around the Fukushima site remains closed to fishing due to contaminants.

It's worthwhile considering the benefit to the planet. It's counterintuitive, but because there are no people around Chernobyl (at least before Russia's current affront), the area became a rich and diverse haven for wildlife. The area was reclaimed by nature.

originally posted by: paraphi
To be honest, the impact on the ocean will be orders of magnitude less than the levels of pollution spewing out from China. People see radioactivity, and they think the worst, although the sea around the Fukushima site remains closed to fishing due to contaminants.

It's worthwhile considering the benefit to the planet. It's counterintuitive, but because there are no people around Chernobyl (at least before Russia's current affront), the area became a rich and diverse haven for wildlife. The area was reclaimed by nature.

There is much debate and research on the health of the wildlife within that exclusion zone.

I wonder if they'll christen the first tank with a big bottle of sake....🤔

I hope a Kaiju the size of Montana tears them a new exit hole. Idiots.

discharge underway
www.bbc.com...

How was the water made safe?

It was treated to remove all radioactive elements, except tritium which is very difficult to remove. The water was diluted to reduce radioactivity to 1,500 becquerels per litre, far below the drinking water standard of 10,000 Bq/L.

How did it go down?

There were citizen protests in Japan and South Korea, but China's government came out swinging - labelling Japan as "selfish" and "irresponsible". It also imposed a ban on all seafood from Japan.

What happens next?

Thursday's release was the first of four scheduled between now and the end of March 2024. The entire process will take at least 30 years.

hope it goes well. hope the fishies don't suffer.

EternalShadow, nobody likes this, but accidents happen. we have to have electricity and there is only so much fossil fuel (almost none in Japan) so nuclear is one of the better options. I think the consensus is this was from the earthquake, not carelessness or poor engineering.

a reply to: ElGoobero

hope it goes well. hope the fishies don't suffer.

It appears low doses (whatever that may be in this case) seem to not cause major harm to fishes. Then again, other countries have stopped importing fish from certain prefectures in Japan, so what do they know that nobody else knows?

Tritium is a byproduct of many radiochemical reactions in the nuclear industry, and its effects on aquatic organisms, particularly low-dose effects, deserve special attention. The low-dose effects of tritium on aquatic microbiota have been intensively studied using luminous marine bacteria as model microorganisms. Low-dose physiological activation has been demonstrated and explained by the signaling role of reactive oxygen species through the “bystander effect” in bacterial suspensions. The activation of microbial functions in natural reservoirs by low tritium concentrations can cause unpredictable changes in food chains and imbalances in the natural equilibrium. The incorporation of tritium from the free form into organically bound compounds mainly occurs in the dark and at a temperature of 25 °C. When tritium is ingested by marine animals, up to 56% of tritium is accumulated in the muscle tissue and up to 36% in the liver. About 50% of tritium in the liver is bound in non-exchangeable forms. Human ingestion of water and food products contaminated with background levels of tritium does not significantly contribute to the total dose load on the human body.

www.mdpi.com...

Maybe the other countries don't trust the Japanese government's data on exactly what else is being dumped into the ocean along with tritium.

First round of releases done.

news.yahoo.com...

The operator of the wrecked Fukushima nuclear power plant said Monday that it has safely completed the first release of treated radioactive water from the plant into the sea and will inspect and clean the facility before starting the second round in a few weeks.

The Fukushima Daiichi plant began discharging the treated and diluted wastewater into the Pacific Ocean on Aug. 24. The water has accumulated since the plant was damaged by a massive earthquake and tsunami in 2011, and the start of its release is a milestone in the plant's decommissioning.

The discharge, which is expected to continue for decades until the decommissioning is finished, has been strongly opposed by fishing groups and by neighboring countries. China has banned all imports of Japanese seafood in response, hurting producers and exporters and prompting the Japanese government to compile an emergency relief fund. Groups in South Korea have also fiercely protested, demanding Japan stop the release.

here's hoping this will turn out to be a nothingburger.
I understand the emotional reaction to radioactive; the stuff is uniquely dangerous and lingering. but the world needs electricity and if we eliminate all nuclear power fossil fuel prices will go higher and the supply will eventually dwindle. no-win situation.

a reply to: ElGoobero

From your source:

A group of plaintiffs and supporters, demanding revokation of TEPCO's treated water discharge plan, head to the Fukushima District Court to file a lawsuit, in Fukushima, northeastern Japan, Friday, Sept. 8, 2023. Fishermen and residents of Fukushima and five other prefectures along Japan’s northeastern coast filed a lawsuit Friday demanding a halt to the ongoing release of treated radioactive wastewater from the wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant into the sea. The banner reads "Lawsuit to halt the release of ALPS treated radioactive wastewater."(Kyodo News via AP) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

Why didn't they file the lawsuit when it was announced they were going to discharge the water, which was a long time ago? Anyway...