Japan decides to release Fukushima wastewater into ocean

[TexasTowelie]

Source: UPI

April 12 (UPI) -- Japan said Tuesday it has decided to release tons of treated wastewater from the Fukushima nuclear plant into the ocean despite strong push back from conservation groups and concern from neighboring nations.

Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga told lawmakers during a cabinet meeting that space to hold such water will run out next year and that its disposal "is a problem that cannot be avoided."

Decommissioning of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station has been ongoing for several years since an earthquake-induced tsunami on March 11, 2011, flooded hundreds of miles and severely damaged three nuclear reactors at the site, causing it to release massive quantities of radiation.

Since the meltdown, groundwater continues to be contaminated at the site when it comes into contact with the damaged reactors and fuel debris in the buildings, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said.

Read more: https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2021/04/13/Japan-decides-to-release-Fukushima-wastewater-into-ocean/5541618280403/

[FBaggins]

1. I've heard this one before

Right thing to do... with virtually zero risk... yet the decision is bound to be undone... again.

[bucolic_frolic]

2. So evaporate it, drill a well somewhere and inject it underground into radioactive rock

The worst thing to do is disperse it.

[FBaggins]

4. Not possible

The water they’re talking about releasing had already had almost all of the radioactive contamination removed. What remains is tritium.

The problem is that tritium is chemically the same thing as water. You can’t evaporate or boil one of them without doing the same to the other.

[Delmette2.0]

3. Could they try distillation first?

Captured distillation will help determine the radiation level in the recovered water. Also it will show how much radiation is left behind in the residue.

[FBaggins]

5. No... see #4 above

They’ve effectively done that already - removing virtually all radionuclides.

Except tritium... which is far too hard to remove from that much water.

Fortunately... you could probably drink tritiated water for the rest of your life without effect. Diluting it in the sea was always the right way to deal with it

[Delmette2.0]

6. Thanks and oops!

I must have been typing about the same time as they were.

The internet version of crossed in the mail.

[NurseJackie]

7. Wait a minute...

[llashram]

8. does not sound

healthy for all living creatures.

[Harker]

9. Gojira. n/t

[area51]

21. I knew someone would beat me to it.

[Harker]

22. It's almost never me.

[3825-87867]

10. Not as bad as

resultant radiation from over 300 nuclear tests over, under and in the Pacific and on islands between 1946 and 1996. Much more and dangerous radiation released there than Fukushima's water.

Of course it's too late to do anything about those test results. So we just get to glow a little more.

The only real solution is to "upload" the waste to the sun. And we aren't savvy enough for that, yet (or willing to pay that price).

And we worry more about that radiation than pollution, global warming, preventable diseases or killing each other in the streets!

People! The dominant species of stupidity on earth.

[Bayard]

11. "groundwater continues to be contaminated"

This has never sounded like a good idea to me. Contaminating the groundwater? Solution--dump it in the ocean so it can travel around the world.

Have we learned nothing from Godzilla?

[BadGimp]

12. What could possibly go wrong?

[turbinetree]

13. So ..........

While the tritium is radioactive, it has a half-life of around 12 years, meaning it will disappear from the environment over a period of decades rather than centuries.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-56728068#:~:text=While%20the%20tritium%20is%20radioactive,of%20decades%20rather%20than%20centuries.

[Martin68]

14. What could go wrong?

I know the fishermen of Fukushima Prefecture are going to be out of work for years after they do this. Consumers in Japan will not buy fish that were caught anywhere near Fukushima.

[DENVERPOPS]

17. Several months ago

there was an article that there was water constantly running off the site directly into the ocean, and has been since the day of the disaster........Over the last year, scientists are finding increased levels of several of the radioactive elements from Fukushima along the entire west coast of the U.S. in fish and shell fish. It started in Alaska and worked it's way down the coast with the flow of the currents in the pacific.

I can only imagine that if they flush their tanks into the ocean, it will get even worse.........humans are going to wipe out one of the largest food sources in the world..........

The U.S. is not so innocent. There is a similar situation on the Columbia River up stream from Portland in the Handover? Nuclear Plant.
They have massive storage tanks of nasty nuclear waste, just sitting there for decades. They are starting to rust out after all this time.
All of the nuclear weapons were made there, except the plutonium triggers which were made in Boulder Colorado. When those tanks leak, it will run into the Columbia River and straight out into the pacific.?????

The world cannot use the oceans as dumping grounds for all the Methyl-Ethyl Bad Shit being produced. Look at the dumping grounds for hazardous materials that they just found off the coast of Russia, and all the barrels of stuff they found not far off the coast in L.A.

[Cetacea]

15. When slaughteing dolphins just isn't enough fun

China is suing Japan. Good.
The clever Japanese have figured out how to filter water from three melted down cores. Maybe we can hire them to figure out how to filter the water in that Florida sewage dump. Fifty years have passed and still no idea how to filter far less toxic water. I don't trust any government that forbids their own people from saying anything negative about the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl. Are they even allowing international experts access? I think not.

[DENVERPOPS]

18. Here in the U.S.

the corporations responsible just walk away and leave it to the taxpayers to clean up. And the government, especially Corporate loving Republicans allow them to do it.

Here in Colorado, we have THREE massive and horrifically bad areas of nuclear and Hazmat waste. Not much, if anything, has been done on the cleanup of any of them since they were created five or six decades ago. These three are all on the edge of Major cities here in Colorado, including Denver, Boulder, and Pueblo.....

[Duppers]

20. 😥

"When slaughteing dolphins just isn't enough fun..."

No empathy for other sensient beings.

[hunter]

19. Both the USA and Japan dump worse toxins in the ocean continuously.

Many of these toxins have a half life of FOREVER!

But I guess these are not radioactive so nobody gives a shit.

Things like used motor oil and gasoline are worse.

Certainly the waste from fossil fuel power plants is worse.

One of the saddest things we learned from Chernobyl and Fukushima is that people living their ordinary lives do far more damage to the natural environment than the worst nuclear power plant accidents.