IAEA: #FukushimaDaiichi treated water release meets intl. safety standards
January 30, 2024
"The agency said in its earlier report in July that it found Japan's plan for handling the treated water to be consistent with international safety standards. It added that the discharge as planned would have a negligible radiological impact to people and the environment."
"As of 8 June 2023, there were 1,335,381 cubic meters of radioactive wastewater stored in tanks, but due to the failure of the #ALPS (Advanced Liquid Processing System) processing technology, approximately 70% of this water will have to be processed again. Scientists have warned that the #radiological risks from the discharges have not been fully assessed, and the biological impacts of #tritium, #carbon14, #strontium90, and #iodine129, which will be released in the discharges, have been ignored.
"The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) endorsed Japan’s plans for discharge. However, the IAEA has failed to investigate the operation of the ALPS, has completely ignored the highly radioactive fuel debris that melted down which continues every day to contaminate ground water – nearly 1000 cubic meters every ten days. Furthermore, the discharge plan has failed to conduct a comprehensive Environmental Impact Assessment, as required by its international legal obligations, given that there is a risk of significant transboundary harm to neighboring countries. The IAEA is not tasked with protecting the global marine environment but it should not encourage a state to violate it."
"TEPCO began dumping contaminated water at 1pm Thursday (Japan time). International opposition and outcry have not been resolved. We document that along with the scope of the contamination here. While TEPCO has insisted the water only contains Tritium that is untrue. The long list of other contaminants can be found here [link in comments]."
This from the hellbirdsite. I'll be looking for more details later today.
Yoko Akashi (@akashiyoko):
"#Kishida is meeting #Biden at the end of August before finalizing radioactive water dump from #Fukushima into the ocean. It seems like #Japan needs US approval to do this. We should pressure Biden not to approve it."
Some have cast doubt on the #IAEA’s findings, with China recently arguing that the group’s assessment “is not proof of the legality and legitimacy” of Fukushima’s wastewater release.
By Jessie Yeung, Mayumi Maruyama and Emiko Jozuka, July 5, 2023
"Robert H. Richmond, director of the Kewalo Marine Laboratory at the University of #Hawaii at Manoa, is among a group of international scientists working with the #PacificIslandForum to assess the wastewater release plan – including visits to the Fukushima site, and meetings with TEPCO, Japanese authorities and the IAEA. After reviewing the details of the plan, Richmond called it 'ill-advised' and premature.
"One concern is that diluting the wastewater might not be enough to reduce its impact on marine life. #Pollutants like tritium can pass through various levels of the #FoodChain – including plants, animals, and bacteria – and be '#bioaccumulated,' meaning they will build up in the marine #ecosystem, he said.
"He added that the world’s oceans are already under stress from #ClimateChange, ocean #acidification, #overfishing and #pollution. The last thing it needs is to be treated like a 'dumping ground,' he said.
"And the potential risks won’t just affect the #AsiaPacific region. One 2012 study found evidence that bluefin #tuna had transported #radionuclides – radioactive isotopes like the ones in #nuclear#wastewater – from Fukushima across the Pacific to California."
After finding out about how #ExxonKnew and hid information, do we really trust big #corporations and government agencies beholden to them to look out for #MotherEarth? I think not!
Residents worry ahead of #Fukushima water release [video]
AP, July 24, 2023
The #FukushimaDaiichi#nuclear power plant is expected to start releasing treated #radioactive#wastewater into the #sea within weeks. It's unclear whether, or how, damaging that would be, but residents say they feel helpless. (July 24) (AP video/Ayaka McGill)
"Tokyo Electric Power Company (#TEPCO) announced that facilities used to release the nuclear-#contaminated wastewater from the #FukushimaDaiichi#Nuclear Power Plant into the sea will be put into trial operation on Monday, according to local media outlets. The move is widely seen as a pilot for #Japan's formal dumping plan.
"After TEPCO sent seawater into an underwater tunnel designed to dump the nuclear-contaminated water into the #ocean last week, the marine #fish caught in the harbor of the plant were found to have 180 times the maximum limit of the #radioactive element #caesium allowed in Japan's food safety law.
"Despite this worrying result, the International Atomic Energy Agency (#IAEA) asserted in a report released on May 31 that TEPCO had demonstrated 'capabilities for accurate and precise measurements of the radionuclides present in the treated water stored on site.' The report concluded that no additional radionuclides at significant levels were detected. The contradicting findings make the public even more concerned about Japan's dumping plan."
"In an interview with Chinese media, #ShaunBurnie, an #environmentalist who has stayed in Japan for almost 30 years, straightforwardly expressed his disagreement with the IAEA's report. TEPCO has only tested 20 percent of the #wastewater tanks, Burnie said. In addition, third-party laboratories in the U.S., Switzerland and South Korea have taken the samples of only 25-liter water (before dilution) each, while there's more than 1.3 million metric tons of nuclear-contaminated water stored in the plant. The amount of samples was unbelievably limited."
Nearly three times more marine lives died in tritium water to be discharged
"Since October of 2022, #Tepco has been implementing the breeding experiment of marine life in normal seawater and the water contaminated with tritium, which is planned to be discharged to the Pacific. Currently, flounder and abalone are monitored.
According to Tepco’s record, 2.6 times more abalone died in the tank with the tritium water."