Fukushima residents worry nuclear plant’s wastewater release in a few weeks will be another setback

The Fukushima Daiichi 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.

BY MARI YAMAGUCHI
July 24, 2023

VIDEO

IWAKI, Japan (AP) — Beach season has started across Japan, which means seafood for holiday makers and good times for business owners. But in Fukushima, that may end soon.

Within weeks, the tsunami-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is expected to start releasing treated radioactive wastewater into the sea, a highly contested plan still facing fierce protests in and outside Japan.

Residents worry that the water discharge, 12 years after the nuclear disaster, could deal another setback to Fukushima’s image and hurt their businesses and livelihoods.


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“Without a healthy ocean, I cannot make a living.” said Yukinaga Suzuki, a 70-year-old innkeeper at Usuiso beach in Iwaki about 50 kilometers (30 miles) south of the plant. And the government has yet to announce when the water release will begin.

While officials say the possible impact would be limited to rumors, it’s not yet clear if it will be damaging to the local economy. Residents say they feel “shikataganai” — meaning helpless.

Suzuki has requested officials hold the plan at least until the swimming season ends in mid-August.

“If you ask me what I think about the water release, I’m against it. But there is nothing I can do to stop it as the government has one-sidedly crafted the plan and will release it anyway,” he said. “Releasing the water just as people are swimming at sea is totally out of line, even if there is no harm.”

The beach, he said, will be in the path of treated water traveling south on the Oyashio current from off the coast of Fukushima Daiichi. That’s where the cold Oyashio current meets the warm, northbound Kuroshio, making it a rich fishing ground.

The government and the operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, or TEPCO, have struggled to manage the massive amount of contaminated water accumulating since the 2011 nuclear disaster, and announced plans to release it to the ocean during the summer.

They say the plan is to treat the water, dilute it with more than a hundred times the seawater and then release it into the Pacific Ocean through an undersea tunnel. Doing so, they said, is safer than national and international standards require.

Suzuki is among those who are not fully convinced by the government’s awareness campaign that critics say only highlights safety. “We don’t know if it’s safe yet,” Suzuki said. “We just can’t tell until much later.”

The Usuiso area used to have more than a dozen family-run inns before the disaster. Now, Suzuki’s half-century old Suzukame, which he inherited from his parents 30 years ago, is the only one still in business after surviving the tsunami. He heads a safety committee for the area and operates its only beach house.

Suzuki says his inn guests won’t mention the water issue if they cancel their reservations and he would only have to guess. “I serve fresh local fish to my guests, and the beach house is for visitors to rest and chill out. The ocean is the source of my livelihood.”

The March 11, 2011, earthquake and tsunami destroyed the Fukushima Daiichi plant’s cooling systems, causing three reactors to melt and contaminating their cooling water, which has since leaked continuously. The water is collected, filtered and stored in some 1,000 tanks, which will reach their capacity in early 2024.

The government and TEPCO say the water must be removed to make room for the plant’s decommissioning, and to prevent accidental leaks from the tanks because much of the water is still contaminated and needs retreatment.

Katsumasa Okawa, who runs a seafood business in Iwaki, says those tanks containing contaminated water bother him more than the treated water release. He wants to have them removed as soon as possible, especially after seeing “immense” tanks occupying much of the plant complex during his visit few years ago.

An accidental leak would be “an ultimate strikeout ... It will cause actual damage, not reputation,” Okawa says. “I think the treated water release is unavoidable.” It’s eerie, he adds, to have to live near the damaged plant for decades.

Fukushima’s badly hit fisheries community, tourism and the economy are still recovering. The government has allocated 80 billion yen ($573 million) to support still-feeble fisheries and seafood processing and combat potential reputation damage from the water release.

His wife evacuated to her parents’ home in Yokohama, near Tokyo with their four children, but Okawa stayed in Iwaki to work on reopening the store. In July, 2011, Okawa resumed sale of fresh fish —but none from Fukushima.

Local fishing was returning to normal operation in 2021 when the government announced the water release plan.

Fukushima’s local catch today is still about one-fifth of its pre-disaster levels due to a decline in the fishing population and smaller catch sizes.

Japanese fishing organizations strongly opposed Fukushima’s water release, as they worry about further damage to the reputation of their seafood as they struggle to recover. Groups in South Korea and China have also raised concerns, turning it a political and diplomatic issue. Hong Kong has vowed to ban the import of aquatic products from Fukushima and other Japanese prefectures if Tokyo discharges treated radioactive wastewater into the sea.

China plans to step up import restrictions and Hong Kong restaurants began switching menus to exclude Japanese seafood. Agricultural Minister Tetsuro Nomura acknowledged some fishery exports from Japan have been suspended at Chinese customs, and that Japan was urging Beijing to honor science.

“Our plan is scientific and safe, and it is most important to firmly convey that and gain understanding,” TEPCO official Tomohiko Mayuzumi told The Associated Press during its plant visit. Still, people have concerns and so a final decision on the timing of the release will be a “a political decision by the government,” he said.

Japan sought support from the International Atomic Energy Agency for transparency and credibility. IAEA’s final report, released this month and handed directly to Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, concluded that the method meets international standards and its environmental and health impacts would be negligible. IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said radioactivity in the water would be almost undetectable and there is no cross-border impact.

Scientists generally agree that environmental impact from the treated water would be negligible, but some call for more attention on dozens of low-dose radionuclides that remain in the water, saying data on their long-term effect on the environment and marine life is insufficient.

Radioactivity of the treated water is so low that once it hits the ocean it will quickly disperse and become almost undetectable, which makes pre-release sampling of the water important for data analysis, said University of Tokyo environmental chemistry professor Katsumi Shozugawa.

He said the release can be safely carried out and trusted “only if TEPCO strictly follows the procedures as planned.” Diligent sampling of the water, transparency and broader cross-checks — not just limited to IAEA and two labs commissioned by TEPCO and the government — is key to gaining trust, Shozugawa said.

Japanese officials characterize the treated water as a tritium issue, but it also contains dozens of other radionuclides that leaked from the damaged fuel. Though they are filtered to legally releasable levels and their environmental impact deemed minimal, they still require close scrutiny, experts say.

TEPCO and government officials say tritium is the only radionuclide inseparable from water and is being diluted to contain only a fraction of the national discharge cap, while experts say heavy dilution is needed to also sufficiently lower concentration of other radionuclides.

“If you ask their impact on the environment, honestly, we can only say we don’t know,” Shozugawa, referring to dozens of radionuclides whose leakage is not anticipated at normal reactors, he says. “But it is true that the lower the concentration, the smaller the environmental impact,” and the plan is presumably safe, he said.

The treated water is a less challenging task at the plant compared to the deadly radioactive melted debris that remain in the reactors, or the continuous, tiny leaks of radioactivity to the outside.

Shozugawa, who has been regularly measuring radioactivity of groundwater samples, fish and plants near Fukushima Daiichi plant since the disaster, says his 12 years of sampling work shows small amounts of radioactivity from the Fukushima Daiichi has continuously leaked into groundwater and the port at the plant. He says its potential impact on the ecosystem also requires closer attention than the controlled release of the treated water.

TEPCO denies new leaks from the reactors and attributes high cesium in fish sometimes caught inside the port to sediment contamination from initial leaks and a rainwater drainage.

A local fisheries cooperative executive Takayuki Yanai told a recent online event that forcing the water release without public support only triggers reputational damage and hurts Fukushima fisheries. “We don’t need additional burden to our recovery.”

“Public understanding is lacking because of distrust to the government and TEPCO,” he said. “The sense of safety only comes from trust.”

Fukushima region forges renewable future after nuclear disaster


A gleaming field of solar panels now lines a coastal stretch north of the stricken Fukushima plant

 (AFP/Philip FONG)

Etienne BALMER and Harumi OZAWA
Tue, 8 March 2022, 

Solar farms along tsunami-ravaged coastlines, green energy "micro-grids" and the experimental production of non-polluting hydrogen: 11 years after its nuclear nightmare, Japan's Fukushima region is investing in a renewable future.

On March 11, 2011, an earthquake unleashed a deadly tsunami on northeastern Japan, triggering a meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear plant and forcing mass evacuations over radiation fears.

One year later, Fukushima's regional government set a goal of meeting all its energy needs with renewable power by 2040, a policy intended to help residents "reclaim" the place they call home, officials say.

Substantial progress has been made, in part thanks to hefty financial support from the national government.

Renewables accounted for 43 percent of Fukushima's energy consumption in fiscal 2020, up from just 24 percent in 2011.

But obstacles remain, from the higher cost for consumers to lingering concern over contamination.

"A strong desire to never see a repeat of such an accident was the most important starting point" for the green energy drive, Noriaki Saito, energy director at the prefecture's planning department, told AFP.

A gleaming field of solar panels now lines a coastal stretch north of the stricken Fukushima plant, in a location once earmarked for the region's third nuclear power station, a project abandoned after the tsunami.

Power from the site, which was completed in 2020 and is as big as 25 football pitches, is used to make hydrogen -- a clean fuel when generated with renewable electricity, and one that Japan hopes will help it reach its goal of carbon neutrality by 2050.

Fuel produced at the "Fukushima Hydrogen Energy Research Field" in Namie has so far been used for small-scale purposes including at the Tokyo Olympics last year, and to refill locally run fuel-cell cars.

"In the near future, much more renewable energy will come to the grid" in Japan, said Eiji Ohira of NEDO, the public research body managing the facility.

The site aims eventually to draw renewable energy from the national grid on days when there is surplus production nationally, helping reduce wastage while generating new green hydrogen, he told AFP.

Fukushima region forges renewable future after nuclear disaster
John SAEKI

- 'Double-edged sword' -

The Fukushima region already had hydroelectric dams, but wind farms are appearing in its mountains, biomass power plants are being constructed and solar fields have sprung up on land abandoned after the tsunami.

Not everyone in the region has been won over, however.

Price is still a sticking point, according to Apollo Group, a small energy provider in Fukushima that has bolstered its renewable offerings in recent years.

The price of solar-generated electricity is "a little higher" than conventional power, said CEO Motoaki Sagara.

"When we explain this to our customers, they often say they prefer cheaper electricity. I feel like the understanding is still not there," he told AFP.

Public subsidies gave Apollo impetus to switch, but Sagara calls them a "double-edged sword", because businesses like his may come to rely on the cash and struggle without it.

- Micro-grids -

Another renewables project hoping to win over residents involves "micro-grids", where electricity is produced and consumed in the same place.

Katsurao, a small village near the Fukushima plant, was evacuated because of radioactive contamination between 2011 and 2016 and now has only 450 residents, less than a third of its former population.

A former rice field, used to store radioactive materials when workers conducted dangerous early decommissioning work, now hosts a solar farm whose electricity is routed directly to the village.

The project has been operational since 2020 and Seiichi Suzuki, vice-president of Katsurao Electric Power, calls the village Japan's "first autonomous community with a micro-grid".

"The villagers... expressed a strong desire to live with natural sources of energy" when they returned to their homes following lengthy evacuations, he said.

For now, the solar farm only covers 40 percent of the village's average yearly electricity needs, and the spectre of the nuclear disaster hangs over other projects.

Some residents oppose a planned biomass, or plant waste, power station, fearing it could produce radioactive emissions if material from still-contaminated parts of the region is used.

But the solar farm has helped Hideaki Ishii, a worker in a family-owned restaurant and grocery store in Katsurao, feel more secure in his home, he told AFP.

"When you use electricity created in the community, it's easier to see how it's generated," he said.

"I feel safer that way," he said, and "it's good for the environment".

etb-oh/kaf/sah/mtp/leg

The price of solar-generated electricity is "a little higher" than conventional power, 

said CEO Motoaki Sagara 

Seiichi Suzuki, vice-president of Katsurao Electric Power, calls the village 

Japan's "first autonomous community with a micro-grid" 

Fuel produced at the "Fukushima Hydrogen Energy Research Field" 

in Namie has so far been used for small-scale purposes including at the Tokyo Olympics last year

Hideaki Ishii, a worker in a family-owned restaurant and grocery store in Katsurao 

PHOTOS BY  AFP/Philip FONG

 

Fukushima struggles on 10 years after devastating earthquake and tsunami

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Tokyo Olympics had been touted as a chance to showcase the recovery efforts in the region

Adrienne Arsenault · CBC News · Posted: Aug 06, 2021 

Inside Fukushima a decade after tsunami, nuclear disaster

8 days ago

8:26

Adrienne Arsenault visits Fukushima, Japan to see what life is like 10 years after the region was struck by an earthquake that set off a tsunami and nuclear disaster killing more than 18,000 people and displacing nearly half a million others. 8:26

When Tokyo bid for the Olympics in 2013, the healing of Fukushima and the country's Tohoku region was part of the pitch. A decade ago, northeastern Japan was rocked by the strongest earthquake in its recorded history. It triggered a tsunami that killed nearly 20,000 people and left more than 2,500 missing.

When the 15-metre tsunami flooded the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, there were explosions and meltdowns. A contaminated cloud blew north and 150,000 people moved out of the way. 

Most haven't come back.

Japanese Olympic officials had wanted to use the Games to show confidence in the region's growth. The fresh flowers given to athletes at the medal ceremonies are from three prefectures affected by the disaster. Fukushima grew some of the food served in the athletes' village. The torch relay began there. The cauldron was lit with clean energy from the region.

It was a neat narrative constructed around a messier reality.

Nobuyoshi Ito has been measuring the radioactive properties in the food and soil in Iitate village for nearly a decade. (Stephanie Jenzer/CBC)

"There has been no recovery. Saying it's under control is a lie," Nobuyoshi Ito said through an interpreter. Ito is a former computer engineer who retired to the village of Iitate, in Fukushima, a year before the disaster.

"Iitate had 6,500 people before the accident, but only 1,400 have returned. Where did the others go? It's only when those people have returned that you can say for the first time that things have recovered."

This sort of anger can feel odd coming from a man sitting in Iitate, given Ito never left. When the earthquake hit there wasn't much damage in Iitate, and it was outside the zone first thought to be at risk from the cloud of radioactive materials. So he stayed.

Then, a few weeks later, the government reevaluated. It declared Iitate was contaminated after all.

Testing vegetables and soil

Ito, who became an apprentice farmer after his career, started collecting soil samples from throughout the village, and growing potatoes in them — not to eat, but to test. He has been measuring the radioactive properties in the food and soil for nearly a decade, trying to determine what is and isn't safe to eat, and where it is and isn't safe to go.

He carries a handheld radiation dosimeter with him, constantly evaluating the atmospheric contamination. And despite the evacuation orders being rescinded in Fukushima, Ito says people — especially children — shouldn't return to his village.

"It will take 300 years to restore the village to its original state, and it will continue to emit radiation for 300 years," he said. "The question is, can we bring our children, our newborn children, to such a village?"

But not everyone feels that way.

Masaru Mizoguchi, a professor of agricultural and life sciences at the University of Tokyo, says produce grown in Fukushima prefecture is safe if done properly. (Stephanie Jenzer/CBC)

Masaru Mizoguchi, a professor of agricultural and life sciences at the University of Tokyo, says he and others have learned to grow produce safely by consistently testing the soil and vegetables.

"I'm always surprised that all people don't believe that this kind of fruit or vegetables aren't safe," he said. "I am a scientist so I understand what occurs in the fields."

Dealing with the soil has been a priority for the Japanese government. When you drive through the region, you see fields of black bags, emerging like cruel crops on the landscape. They contain the contaminated vegetation and topsoil scraped away from areas near homes, public buildings and schools over the course of years.

Black bags containing radioactive soil can be found in many parts of Fukushima prefecture in northeastern Japan. (Stephanie Jenzer/CBC)

There are millions of cubic metres of it. Unnervingly, some appear next to rice paddies. Japan's government has said that, by 2045, the soil will move to a permanent site outside of Fukushima prefecture. But so far, there's no word on where the toxic waste will go.

Ito continues to have his doubts about just how much the region has recovered.

"It's all lies and deceit, isn't it?" he said.

And if the Olympics were intended to offer the needed boost to reconstruction and confidence for all, it was a chance denied.

The shiny, freshly painted barriers built to guide the throngs of spectators outside the Fukushima Azuma Baseball Stadium never got their Olympic moment. The people never came.

Those barriers were pulled down last week — the experience over, even before the Olympic cauldron goes out.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Adrienne Arsenault

Senior Correspondent

Emmy Award-winning journalist Adrienne Arsenault co-hosts The National. Her investigative work on security has seen her cross Canada and pursue stories across the globe. Since joining CBC in 1991, her postings have included Vancouver, Washington, Jerusalem and London.

Drone aims to examine Japan's damaged Fukushima nuclear reactor for the first time

About 880 tons of highly radioactive melted nuclear fuel remain inside the damaged Japanese reactors

Associated Press
Published February 28, 2024 

A small drone was flown inside a damaged reactor at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant on Wednesday to examine molten fuel debris.

The Fukushima Daiichi plant experienced a meltdown in three reactors following a magnitude 9.0 quake and tsunami in March 2011.
About 880 tons of highly radioactive melted nuclear fuel remain inside the three damaged reactors.

A drone small enough to fit in one's hand flew inside one of the damaged reactors at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant Wednesday in hopes it can examine some of the molten fuel debris in areas where earlier robots failed to reach.

Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings also began releasing the fourth batch of the plant’s treated and diluted radioactive wastewater into the sea Wednesday. The government and TEPCO, the plant's operator, say the water is safe and the process is being monitored by the International Atomic Energy Agency, but the discharges have faced strong opposition by fishing groups and a Chinese ban on Japanese seafood.

A magnitude 9.0 quake and tsunami in March 2011 destroyed the plant's power supply and cooling systems, causing three reactors to melt down. The government and TEPCO plan to remove the massive amount of fatally radioactive melted nuclear fuel that remains inside each reactor — a daunting decommissioning process that's been delayed for years and mired by technical hurdles and a lack of data.

JAPAN'S FUKUSHIMA NUCLEAR PLANT LEAKED RADIOACTIVE WATER, OFFICIALS SAY

To help on data, a fleet of four drones were set to fly one at a time into the hardest-hit No. 1 reactor’s primary containment vessel. TEPCO plans to probe a new area Thursday.

This aerial view shows the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Fukushima, northern Japan, on Aug. 24, 2023. A drone small enough to fit in one's hand flew inside one of the damaged reactors at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant on Wednesday in hopes it can examine some of the molten fuel debris in areas where earlier robots failed to reach. (Kyodo News via AP, File)

TEPCO has sent a number of probes — including a crawling robot and an underwater vehicle — inside each reactor but was hindered by debris, high radiation and the inability to navigate through the rubble, though they were able to gather some data. In 2015, the first robot to go inside got stuck on a grate.

Wednesday’s drone flight comes after months of preparations that began in July at a nearby mock facility.

The drones, each weighing 185 grams (6.5 ounces), are highly maneuverable and their blades hardly stir up dust, making them a popular model for factory safety checks. Each carries a front-loaded high-definition camera to send live video and higher-quality images to an operating room.

In part due to battery life, the drone investigation inside a reactor is limited to a 5-minute flight.

TEPCO officials said they plan to use the new data to develop technology for future probes as well as a process to remove the melted fuel from the reactor. The data will also be used in the investigation of how the 2011 meltdown occurred.


On Wednesday, two drones inspected the area around the exterior of the main structural support in the vessel, called the pedestal. Based on the images they transmitted, TEPCO officials decided to send the other two in Thursday.

The pedestal is directly under the reactor’s core. Officials hope to film the core’s bottom to find out how overheated fuel dripped there in 2011.

About 880 tons of highly radioactive melted nuclear fuel remain inside the three damaged reactors. Critics say the 30- to 40-year cleanup target set by the government and TEPCO is overly optimistic. The damage in each reactor is different, and plans need to accommodate their conditions.

JAPAN TO RELEASE FUKUSHIMA NUCLEAR WASTEWATER INTO OCEAN ON THURSDAY

TEPCO's goal is to remove a small amount of melted debris from the least-damaged No. 2 reactor as a test case by the end of March by using a giant robotic arm. It was forced to delay due to difficulty removing a deposit blocking its entry.

As in the past three rounds of wastewater discharges which started in August, TEPCO plans to release 7,800 metric tons of the treated water through mid-March after diluting it with massive amounts of seawater and sampling it to make sure radioactivity is far below international standards.

China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning on Wednesday accused Japan of risking the whole world with "nuclear-contaminated water" and demanded it stop "this wrongdoing." Mao urged Japan to cooperate in an independent monitoring system with neighboring countries and other stakeholders.

Rahm Emanuel eats Fukushima fish amid nuclear wastewater panic
U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel visited a Fukushima coastal city to support the local fishing industry after China and South Korea raised the alarm over water discharge began from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. (SOURCE: Reuters)

Fukushima Wastewater Could Be Released Into The Sea This Spring Or Summer

 An aerial view shows the storage tanks for treated water at the tsunami-crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Okuma town, Fukushima prefecture, Japan February 13, 2021, in this photo taken by Kyodo. Picture taken February 13, 2021. Kyodo/via REUTERS

Reuters

Total Views: 0 

February 19, 2023

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By Ju-min Park

SEOUL (Reuters) – The release of waste water from Japan’s wrecked Fukushima nuclear power plant would have a negligible effect on South Korean waters, according to a government study published on Thursday.

“That change would be too small to detect,” an official at the Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology said.

The simulation study by the institute and the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute showed the level of tritium, a radioactive isotope of hydrogen, would rise by 0.001 becquerel per cubic meter in ten years, compared to the average of 172 becquerels per cubic meter of tritium currently found in Korean waters. A “becquerel” is a unit of radioactivity.

The analysis comes as South Korea’s President Yoon Suk-yeol is seeking to improve relations with Japan after years of tensions.

Read Also: This Is Why Japan Might Release Radioactive Waste Water Into The Ocean

Japan said last month that water from the destroyed Fukushima nuclear power plant could be released into sea “around this spring or summer.”

The water release has raised concerns from neighboring countries, including China and South Korea. 

In 2021, South Korea’s then President Moon Jae-in ordered officials to explore petitioning an international court over Japan’s decision to release contaminated water into the sea, amid protests by fisheries and environmental groups.

Japan has said regulators have deemed it safe to release waste water, which will be filtered to remove most isotopes although it will still contain traces of tritium, an isotope of hydrogen hard to separate from water.

The simulation study has “no connection” to normalizing relations between South Korea and Japan, said Oh Haeng-nok, an official at South Korea’s Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries.

Earlier this month, the Pacific island country of Micronesia, one of the fiercest critics of Japan’s decision, said it was no longer concerned about the plan. 

The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear station, about 220 km (130 miles) northeast of Tokyo, was badly damaged by a magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami in March 2011, sparking three reactor meltdowns.

More than 1 million tonnes of water used to cool reactors in the aftermath of the disaster, enough to fill about 500 Olympic-sized swimming pools, is being stored in huge tanks at the plant.

An aerial view shows the storage tanks for treated water at the tsunami-crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Okuma town, Fukushima prefecture, Japan February 13, 2021, in this photo taken by Kyodo. Picture taken February 13, 2021. Kyodo/via REUTERS

With green energy, Japanese governor wants to take Fukushima out of nuclear shadow
By Yuka Obayashi 
3/10/2021

© Reuters/YUKA OBAYASHI Fukushima Hydrogen Energy Research Field (FH2R) and an adjoining solar power farm are pictured in Namie Town

NAMIE, Japan (Reuters) - A decade after Japan's devastating nuclear meltdown, the governor of Fukushima hopes the prefecture can step out of the shadow of disaster and become a symbol for green energy, although some residents are sceptical.

© Reuters/YUKA OBAYASHI 

Aizu Electric Power's Oguni solar power station is pictured in Kitakata

The March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami ravaged northeast Japan and crippled the Dai-ichi nuclear plant. It also triggered widespread opposition to nuclear power, complicating energy policy for resource-poor Japan.

Helped by about 250 billion yen ($2.3 billion) in government support, Fukushima has become Japan's biggest commercial-scale solar power generator and home to one of the world's largest green hydrogen plants, the 10 megawatt (MW) Fukushima Hydrogen Energy Research Field.

© Reuters/YUKA OBAYASHI Fukushima Hydrogen Energy Research Field (FH2R) is pictured in Namie Town

"Fukushima needs to achieve 100% renewable power, as we will not rely on nuclear energy," Governor Masao Uchibori told Reuters on Wednesday.

GRAPHIC: Fukushima renewable energy capacity - https://graphics.reuters.com/JAPAN-FUKUSHIMA/yzdvxeymkpx/chart.png

The government and major corporations are pushing hydrogen. A Toshiba-developed hydrogen plant opened last year in Namie, a town evacuated after the meltdown, using an adjoining 20 megawatt (MW) solar farm to power the process.

A new transmission line will eventually add 360 MW of wind power, putting Fukushima on track for 100% renewable energy by 2040, Uchibori said.

"By making Namie the town of hydrogen, we want to support the regional economy and create a new symbol," Uchibori said.

Toyota Motor Corp's president visited last week and pledged new pilot projects. But some residents say they need support with everyday life, not green energy projects.

"Namie needs more basic infrastructure such as hospitals that are open for 24 hours and care homes for the elderly," said one 27-year-old man.

He returned last year, but without his parents because hospitals aren't open on the weekends. He declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue.

Uchibori said the local government wants to restore infrastructure, develop new projects and attract residents.

Tokuko Shiga, 73, a shopworker, said projects weren't providing enough local jobs. Even if there were jobs, many evacuees live elsewhere, she said.

Many green projects are geared towards big companies and supplying Tokyo with power, just as the nuclear plant did, said Yauemon Sato, a Fukushima sake brewer who started a renewable power company.

His company has built 6 MW of solar farms and plans more.

"We need a business model that helps the local community and promotes autonomy," he said.

(Reporting by Yuka Obayashi; Editing by Gavin Maguire and David Dolan)

Japan eyes delay of Fukushima plant water release

By MARI YAMAGUCHIJanuary 12, 2023

This aerial photo shows the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Okuma town, Fukushima prefecture, north of Tokyo, on March 17, 2022. Japan's government has revised the timing of a planned release to the sea of treated but still radioactive wastewater at the Fukushima nuclear power plant to “around spring or summer," indicating a delay from the initial target of this spring, factoring into the progress of a release tunnel and the need to gain public support.

 (Shohei Miyano/Kyodo News via AP, File)

TOKYO (AP) — Japan has revised the timing of a planned release to the sea of treated but still radioactive wastewater at the Fukushima nuclear power plant to “around spring or summer,” indicating a delay from the initial target of this spring, after factoring in the progress of a release tunnel and the need to gain public support.

The government and the plant operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, announced in April 2021 a plan to begin releasing the treated wastewater into the sea starting in spring 2023. They say more than 1 million tons of water stored in about 1,000 tanks at the plant are hampering its decommissioning and risk leaking in the event of a major earthquake or tsunami.

Under the current plan, TEPCO will transport the treated water through a pipeline from the tanks to a coastal facility, where it will be diluted with seawater and sent through an undersea tunnel, currently under construction, to an offshore outlet. The company has acknowledged the possibility of rough winter weather and sea conditions delaying the tunnel progress.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno told reporters Friday the government has adopted a revised action plan, which includes enhanced efforts to ensure safety and measures to financially support the local fishing industry and a new release target of “around spring or summer this year.”

TEPCO President Tomoaki Kobayakawa said that despite the government’s new timing for the wastewater release, his company still aims to have the facility ready by the spring. He also acknowledged a lack of local understanding about the release and pledged to continue efforts to ease safety concerns.

A massive earthquake and tsunami in 2011 destroyed the Fukushima plant’s cooling systems, causing three reactors to melt and release large amounts of radiation. Water used to cool the damaged reactor cores, which remain highly radioactive, has since leaked into the basements of the reactor buildings and has been collected, treated and stored in tanks.

The release plan has been fiercely opposed by fishermen, local residents and Japan’s neighbors, including China and South Korea. Fukushima residents worry the reputation of their agricultural and fishing products will be further damaged.

Most of the radioactivity is removed from the water during treatment, but tritium cannot be removed and low levels of some other radionuclides also remain. The government and TEPCO say the environmental and health impacts will be negligible as the water will be slowly released after further treatment and dilution by large amounts of seawater.

Some scientists say the impact of long-term, low-dose exposure to tritium and other radionuclides on the environment and humans is still unknown and the release plan should be delayed. They say tritium affects humans more when it is consumed in fish.

Japan is cooperating with the International Atomic Energy Agency to increase the safety, transparency and understanding of the water discharge plan. An IAEA team that visited Japan a number of times for talks and plant inspections last year will visit again in January to meet with nuclear regulators and will release a final report before the planned release begins.

Japan to start releasing treated water from Fukushima this year

Japan plans to start releasing more than a million tonnes of treated water from

 the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant into the ocean in 2023.

Japan plans to start releasing more than a million tonnes of treated water from the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant into the ocean this year, a top government spokesman said Friday.

The plan has been endorsed by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), but the government will wait for "a comprehensive report" by the UN watchdog before the release, chief cabinet secretary Hirokazu Matsuno told reporters.

Cooling systems at the plant were overwhelmed when a massive undersea earthquake triggered a tsunami in 2011, causing the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl.

Decommissioning work is under way and expected to take around four decades.

The site produced 100 cubic metres (3,500 cubic feet) of contaminated water each day on average in the April-November period last year—a combination of groundwater, seawater and rainwater that seeps into the area, and water used for cooling.

The water is filtered to remove various radionuclides and moved to storage tanks, with more than 1.3 million cubic metres on site already and space running out.

"We expect the timing of the release would be sometime during this spring or summer," after release facilities are completed and tested, and the IAEA's comprehensive report is released, Matsuno said.

"The government as a whole will make the utmost efforts to ensure safety and take preventive measures against bad rumours."

The comments are a reference to persistent concerns raised by neighbouring countries and local fishing communities about the release plan.

Fishermen in the region fear reputational damage from the release, after attempting for years to reestablish trust in their products through strict testing.

Plant operator TEPCO says the treated water meets national standards for radionuclide levels, except for one element, tritium, which experts say is only harmful to humans in large doses.

It plans to dilute the water to reduce tritium levels and release it offshore over several decades via a one-kilometre-long (0.6-mile) underwater pipe.

The IAEA has said the release meets international standards and "will not cause any harm to the environment".

Regional neighbours including China and South Korea, and groups such as Greenpeace, have criticised the plan.

The March 2011 disaster in northeast Japan left around 18,500 people dead or missing, with most killed by the tsunami.

Tens of thousands of residents around the Fukushima plant were ordered to evacuate their homes, or chose to do so.

Around 12 percent of the Fukushima region was once declared unsafe, but now no-go zones cover around two percent, although populations in many towns remain far lower than before.

© 2023 AFP

IAEA: Decision on Fukushima wastewater release up to Japan

 

As Japan Begins Releasing Water From Fukushima, Should We be Concerned?

Tank farm for contaminated water at the Fukushima nuclear power plant (Tepco)

PUBLISHED AUG 27, 2023 3:46 PM BY EDMOND SANGANYADO

 

Japan’s decision to release water from the Fukushima nuclear power plant has been greeted with horror by the local fishing industry as well as China and several Pacific Island states. China – which together with Hong Kong imports more than US$1.1 billion of seafood from Japan every year – has slapped a ban on all seafood imports from Japan, citing health concerns.

Tokyo has asked for the ban to be lifted immediately. The Japanese prime minister, Fumio Kishida, told reporters on Thursday: “We strongly encourage discussion among experts based on scientific grounds.” Japan has previously criticised China for spreading “scientifically unfounded claims”.

Japan remains steadfast in its assurance that the water is safe. The discharge process, which will take 30 years, was approved by the International Atomic Energy Agency – the intergovernmental organisation that develops safety standards for managing radioactive waste. And seawater samples taken following the water’s release showed radioactivity levels more than seven times lower than the drinking water limit set by the World Health Organization.

Since the world’s highest authority on radioactive waste backs Japan’s plan, should we also dismiss the concerns raised by Pacific nations and local fishermen as merely irrational fear of radioactive materials?

Contaminated water

In 2011, a magnitude 9.0 earthquake off the north-eastern coast of Japan’s main island, Honshu, triggered a tsunami that devastated many coastal areas of the country. Tsunami waves knocked out the Fukushima nuclear power plant’s backup electricity supply and caused meltdowns in three of its reactors. The event is regarded as one of the worst nuclear accidents in history.

Since the accident, water has been used to cool the damaged reactors. But, as the reactor core contains numerous radioactive elements, including ruthenium, uranium, plutonium, strontium, caesium and tritium, the cooling water has become contaminated.

The tainted water is stored in more than 1,000 steel tanks at the power plant. It has been treated to remove most of the radioactive contaminants – but traces of the radioactive isotope tritium remain.

Removing tritium from the water is challenging. Tritium is a radioactive form of hydrogen that forms water molecules with properties similar to regular water.

It does decay over time to form helium (which is less harmful). But tritium has a half-life of slightly over 12 years.

This is relatively quick in comparison to other radioactive contaminants. But it will still take around 100 years for the radioactivity of the tritium within the tanks at Fukushima to drop below 1%.

To safely store the water that will continue to be contaminated over that time (some 100 tonnes of water each day), the plant’s operators will need to construct an additional 2,700 storage tanks. This may be impractical – storage space at Fukushima is fast running out.

Should we be concerned?

Studies have, in the past, explored the health effects of tritium exposure. However, much of this research has focused on organisms such as zebrafish and marine mussels. Research from France, for example, found that tritium – in the form of titrated water – led to DNA damage, altered muscle tissue and changed movement patterns in zebrafish larvae.

Interestingly, the zebrafish were exposed to tritium concentrations similar to those estimated to be in the storage tanks at Fukushima. But the tritium at Fukushima will be significantly diluted before its release, reaching levels almost a million times lower than those that caused health issues in zebrafish larvae.

Marine organisms within the discharge zone will experience consistent exposure to this low concentration over the next 30 years. We cannot definitively rule out potential repercussions from this on marine life. And, importantly, the findings from these studies cannot be universally applied to all animals.

It’s worth noting, however, that organisms can eliminate half of the tritium in their bodies through biological processes in less than two weeks (known as the biological half-life).

But that’s not everything

In theory, it’s also possible that the potential health issues linked to tritium could worsen due to the presence of other chemical contaminants. In China, researchers discovered that exposing zebrafish larvae to both tritium and genistein – a naturally occurring compound produced by some plants that is commonly found in water – led to reduced survival and hatching rates.

The amount of tritium used in this study was over 3,000 times less than that used in the French study. But it still exceeded the levels being discharged into the Pacific Ocean from Fukushima by almost 250 times.

Yet it’s possible that other chemical contaminants present in the ocean near Japan or within the storage tanks could interact with tritium in a similar way, potentially offsetting the benefits of dilution.

Given that we lack precise knowledge of the exact chemical pollutants present in Fukushima’s water storage tanks and their potential combined effects with tritium, it could be unwise to casually brush aside the very real concerns raised by Pacific nations and fishermen.

Edmond Sanganyado is an Assistant Professor in Environmental Forensics at Northumbria University, Newcastle.

This article appears courtesy of The Conversation and may be found in its original form here.