What? Release the Fukushima Nuclear Wastewater?!

By Chung Hyunhwa

By the time this article is released, some of Fukushima’s radioactive wastewater may have already been released into the Pacific Ocean. It is quite depressing to learn that something so seriously wrong as this can be done so shamelessly. The Japanese government insists that the radioactive level of the to-be-released wastewater is not so harmful when diluted 100 times with water , and now they are ready for a test release. Can it really be safe? Should we not cry over spilled radioactive wastewater?

The nuclear wastewater problem started because underground water entered the ruptured reactor after the nuclear accident. The amount of underground water passing through the reactor was 500 tons a day at first. Japan made efforts to stop it, reducing it to 170 tons a day by using various technologies. Japan built huge tanks to store the radioactive water. Now there are 1,060 tanks at the Fukushima power plant. Japan decided to stop building more tanks and also to release the water in the tanks. It is going to release 1,320,000 tons of radioactive wastewater over 30 years, which comes to 120 tons a day – every day for thirty years! The 120 tons a day will be diluted with 12,000 tons of water. Here, if you stop and think a little, the actual amount of the radioactive material released into the ocean would still be the same. Seawater is pumped in and mixed with the radioactive wastewater, and then sent back into the ocean. The pumping in of seawater is so unnecessary – it only needlessly uses power to pump in the seawater, every day for thirty years! Of course, Japan says the wastewater will be filtered before being released, but it is plainly impossible because to do the job right, the filters should be changed very often for the massive amount of water that will be passing through them, and they are expensive.

Japan claims the wastewater will be “treated” with ALPS (advanced liquid processing system) before being released. There are 64 different radioactive materials in the nuclear wastewater, while a normal reactor may release 19 to 37 depending on the type. They all have different half-lives, and some become safe only after 100,000 years. Can ALPS filter them all out successfully? There are 25 filters in ALPS, and normal filtering is only possible when the filters are changed according to protocol. Even so, tritiated water (super-heavy water) will still pass through the system because there is no way to filter it out. Some say tritium’s half-life is very short, only 12.5 years. It is comparatively short for a radioactive material, but it may take up to 25 years to get it out of the human body, and during that time, the DNA in one’s body will be affected, and it will increase the chance of developing cancers. However, the real dangers are more serious materials, such as cesium, strontium, and plutonium, which are more deadly and have very, very long halflives. Fish 180 times higher in cesium than the accepted value are already being caught in the Fukushima bay.

Japan does not open its data to the world; they selectively release information. The sample they used for the data did not represent the wastewater precisely because it was from the clear top of the tank, not mixed up evenly with the sludge at the bottom of the tank. This was pointed out by a Japanese parliament member as well, and a person who was involved in this work admitted it. Not only that, it has been revealed that the bottom of the reactor is broken. Some argue that these radioactive materials are comparatively heavy, so they will stay near Fukushima, not affecting other countries. Do we really know? Is it really not possible that typhoons would carry these in their routes? What will happen to the oceans and the Earth? The answer is we do not know. If we do not know, it is always the best policy to decide in the safer direction. It is irresponsible to make a decision because it may be okay. The radioactive materials are carcinogens, and the risk of cancers is proportional to the amount of radioactivity. A cancer develops over time, and radioactive materials are not the only cause of cancers, so it will be impossible for cancer victims to prove the relationship.

The Japanese government is not being honest and is trying hard to make the world and its people believe that it is not really a big deal. A minister of Fiji made a claim to Japan: “If the wastewater is safe, why is Japan trying to release it instead of using it domestically? Because it will reach Fiji later, we are worried.” PIF, composed of the island countries in the Pacific, had a group of specialists to crosscheck the safety of the wastewater, and requested a postponement of the release until it is proven safe. Hong Kong will stop importing fish from Japan if the release really takes place.

According to a Korean nuclear scientist, Dr. Seo Gyunryeol, who has taught at Seoul National University and MIT, the best action for now is keeping the wastewater in storage for another 18 years to make it 30 years in total. Over time the toxic level naturally decreases, and the toxicity would not compare to what it is now. If building more tanks is a problem, other countries, including Korea, could help. I agree to this because, regardless of who made the problem, it is now everyone’s problem. I think we should try to help with our own future. The best solution to the nuclear waste problem is to isolate it at 500 meters underground; the wastewater in Fukushima also should be isolated in tanks. Japan says they do not have more space to build tanks, but this is not true because there is a large restricted area where people cannot live due to the accident. I highly suspect that Japan wants to erase the accident from its history. They want to create an image that there is no problem, that the danger is over. I do not think it is over. Global society should band together to stop the release of this wastewater because the oceans are all connected, and keeping the oceans clean is important to all lives.

If you would like to read more about the final disposal facilities for the nuclear waste, please read my earlier article, Look Up? Or Don’t Look Up? [Gwangju News, July 2022] at this link: https://gwangjunewsgic.com/ community/environment/look-up-or-dont-look-up/

Chung Hyunhwa is from Gwangju and currently working for a horticultural company. She is the former leader of Gwangju Hikers, an international eco-hike group at the GIC. Previously, she taught English in different settings, including Yantai American School and Yantai Korean School in China, and in recent years, has worked for the Jeju school administration at Branksome Hall Asia. She holds a master’s degree in TESOL from TCNJ in the U.S. and a license to teach the Korean language. She loves plants, birds, and making useful things out of repurposed items.