28-Jan-2023: Japan to flush 1.25 million tons of wastewater from Fukushima into Pacific Ocean in 2023

Japan to flush 1.25 million tons of wastewater from Fukushima into Pacific Ocean in 2023

• It's a part of a USD 76 billion project to decommission the facility
• Japanese cabinet approved the project in 2021
• Project could take three decades to complete

Sequence of events during Fukushima disaster:

1. Earthquake and tsunami in March 2011
2. Flooding of Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Okuma
3. Loss of power and coolant supply to reactors
4. Radioactive materials leaked and exposed to air, water, soil, and local population
5. Radioactive material was thrown into the Pacific by winds
6. Power plant and surrounding land became uninhabitable

Water to be flushed from plant include

• Water used to cool reactors, plus rainwater and groundwater
• Water containing radioactive isotopes from damaged reactors
• Radioactive water

Concerns

• Any discharge of radioactive materials increases risk of cancer and health impacts
• Poisonous to fish
• Precarious for those living in vicinity of discharge point
• Tritium is difficult to remove from water and easily absorbed by living creatures
• Other radionuclides are present in water that treatment procedure couldn't remove

Why flushing instead of treating water?

• TEPCO planned to treat wastewater but lacked enough room for water-tanks
• Japan cannot store water for longer than discharge it due to Tritium's half-life. Half-life is the time a radioactive material takes for its quantity to be halved through radioactive decay