Hollywood has made enough blockbusters showing to the world that armored personnel from the West mount big moves to counter the nuclear threats being released from the Pacific Ocean. But the reality runs counter to this media construct.
Recently, the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken tweeted, “We thank Japan for its transparent efforts in its decision to dispose of the treated water.”
His tweet follows the Japanese government decision to release into the sea huge quantity of water which can be contaminated with radioactive material from Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.
It is feared that once the decision is implemented, it will pose a long-term threat to the ecology of the entire Pacific Ocean and regions beyond.
Global Times has reported that the nuclear wastewater resulted from the 2011 nuclear accident in the plant. The wastewater was mainly caused by cooling the nuclear reactor core in the accident. Being made up of both highly polluted wastewater and contaminated underground water, they had been collected and kept in storage tanks. Right now about 1.25 million tons of wastewater are stored in the tanks, enough to fill 500 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
Japan said the over 1,000 tanks are running out of space and will be filled up by 2022, so the wastewater has to be dealt with. Japan claimed it has processed the wastewater and removed contaminants, and the wastewater will be diluted to meet safety standards before being released into the ocean.
Al Jazeera reported that the work to release the water will begin in about two years, the Japanese government said, and is expected to take decades.
Tokyo Electric Power, which operates the plant, will handle the process.
“On the premise of strict compliance with regulatory standards that have been established, we select oceanic release,” the government said in a statement after relevant ministers formalised the decision.
In a brief statement, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said, “Releasing the … treated water is an unavoidable task to decommission the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant and reconstruct the Fukushima area.”
It also reported Japan’s move is likely to draw swift condemnation from China, South Korea and environmental groups and the fishing industry.
As feared, China’s foreign ministry called the move “extremely irresponsible” and said it reserved the right to take further action.
South Korea said in a reactionary statement that this move is “totally unacceptable” and that it would lodge a formal complaint with Japan.
At the same time, a protest demonstration was held outside the Japanese embassy in Seoul, in which some of the participants called the move “nuclear terrorism”.
Equally unhappy with the move, Taiwan has also expressed concern about the plan.
TEPCO has stated the water currently contains significant amounts of harmful isotopes despite years of treatment, and the company plans further filtration to leave only tritium, a radioactive isotope of hydrogen that is hard to separate from water.
A Scientific American article reported in 2014 that when ingested tritium can raise cancer risks, while some experts are worried about other contaminants.
“My concern is about non-tritium radioactive contaminants that still remain in the tanks at high levels,” Ken Buesseler, a senior scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts told Reuters news agency.
Global Times reported that there has never been any precedent in the world of discharging polluted water from a nuclear accident into the ocean. Hence, it is hard to assess the long-term consequences of such discharge. The International Atomic Energy Agency, which did not oppose Japan’s approach, has no relevant experience.
Imagine what would happen if other countries do the same thing. No matter how “transparent” they are, the US would never dodge accusing them, not to mention award them a “medal.” The attitude of Western public opinion would be fiercer. The US tactic – defending those who belong to its own faction and attack those who don’t – has reached a peak. It has also played the card of double standards too much and has called disgrace an honor, treated evil as being responsible. It is a shame of modern human civilization.
South Korean environmental activists display pictures of fishes with radioactivity warning signs during a protest against Japan’s decision on releasing Fukushima wastewater, near the Japanese embassy in Seoul on April 13, 2021.
South Korean environmental activists display pictures of fishes with radioactivity warning signs during a protest against Japan’s decision on releasing Fukushima wastewater, near the Japanese embassy in Seoul on
An apparent reason for the US to adopt its current attitude is that Japan is geographically far away from it. If Japan discharges the wastewater near the US, Washington will surely show another stance. But the US may have miscalculated. With the world’s strongest currents along the coast of Fukushima, radioactive materials could spread to the entire Pacific Ocean. It is purely illusionary and shortsighted for the US to think it could detach itself from the possible crisis.
It is understandable that the radioactive wastewater has to be treated one way or the other eventually. But Japan hasn’t done enough yet with all the possible means at hand. Its research on the risks of pollution is far from sufficient and it lacks communication with its neighboring countries. Instead, Tokyo has focused on winning the support of Washington. At last, the Japanese government has chosen the easiest way to dump the wastewater into the ocean – it has maneuvered international politics to greatly reduce its cost of properly treating the wastewater.