UN urges Japan to investigate damaged Fukushima nuclear reactors for clean-up

Isabel Vincent
August 28, 2021 6:05pm
Updated

The Fukushima nuclear disaster was triggered by a massive earthquake and tsunami in March 2011, which wrecked cooling systems at the plant on Japan's northeast coast, sparking reactor meltdowns and radiation leaks.AFP via Getty Images

A team of United Nations experts is urging Japan to investigate nuclear reactors damaged a decade ago by a massive earthquake and tsunami.

Scientists working for the International Atomic Energy Agency reviewing the progress of the Fukushima plant’s clean-up say that Japan has been slow to examine the melted fuel inside the reactors.

And they’re worried that the country will be unable to meet a 2051 target to clean up the mess, according to a report.

“We need to gather more information on the fuel debris and more experience on the retrieval of the fuel debris to know if the plan can be completed as expected in the next 30 years,” said Christophe Xerri, head of IAEA, at a press conference after he and a colleague submitted a report on their recent findings to the Japanese government Friday

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Tanks holding radiation-contaminated water are seen in the premises of Tokyo Electric Power Co’s crippled Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant on April 12, 2021 in Okuma, Fukushima, Japan.The Asahi Shimbun via Getty Images

A worker moves bags of nuclear waste in an evacuation zone area damaged by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Tomioka, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan, in 2016.Bloomberg via Getty Images

A massive earthquake and a tsunami in March 2011 destroyed cooling systems at the Fukushima plant in northeastern Japan, triggering meltdowns in three reactors in the worst nuclear disaster since the 1986 Chernobyl accident, according to the Associated Press.

Japanese officials said that they hope to finish the decommissioning process within the next 30 years, although many experts believe that the timetable is optimistic.

Japanese government officials and the plant operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, have not provided any clarity as to how the plant will look when the cleanup ends.

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It’s unclear whether Fukushima nuclear disaster cleanup in Japan can be finished, as planned, by 2051

Japan’s government adopted an interim plan in recent days it hopes will win support from fishermen and others to release into the Pacific Ocean treated, still radioactive water from the wrecked nuclear plant.

By Mari Yamaguchi | AP Aug 27, 202

Nuclear reactor units of No. 3 and 4 at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant in Okuma town, Fukushima prefecture, northeastern Japan. Hiro Komae / AP

TOKYO — Too little is known about melted fuel inside damaged reactors at Japan’s wrecked Fukushima nuclear power plant, even a decade after the disaster, to be able to tell whether its decommissioning can be finished, as planned, by 2051, a U.N. nuclear agency official says.

“I don’t know, and I don’t know if anybody knows,” Christophe Xerri, head of an International Atomic Energy Agency team reviewing the plant’s cleanup progress, said Friday.

A massive earthquake and a tsunami in March 2011 destroyed cooling systems at the Fukushima plant in northeastern Japan, triggering meltdowns in three reactors. It was the worst nuclear disaster since the 1986 Chernobyl accident.

Japanese government and utility officials say they hope to finish its decommissioning within 30 years, though some experts say that’s overly optimistic and that a full decommissioning might not even be possible.

The biggest challenge: removing and managing highly radioactive fuel debris from the three damaged reactors, according to Xerri, director of IAEA’s Division of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology.

“We need to gather more information on the fuel debris and more experience on the retrieval of the fuel debris to know if the plan can be completed as expected in the next 30 years,” he told reporters.

The cleanup plan depends on how the melted fuel needs to be handled for long-term storage and management, he said.

The IAEA team’s review, the fifth since the disaster, was mostly conducted online due to the coronavirus pandemic. Only Xerri and another team member visited the plant before compiling and submitting a report to Japan’s government on Friday.

The team noted progress in a number of areas since its last review in 2018, including the removal of spent fuel from a storage pool at one of the damaged reactors as well as a Japanese government plan, adopted this past week, to start discharging massive amounts of treated, though still radioactive, water that’s accumulated at the wrecked plant into the Pacific Oean in 2023.

It hopes to win support for the plan from fishermen and others.

Research and development of new technologies needed for the cleanup will take one or two decades, Xerri said.

Government officials and plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings haven’t provided a clear picture of how the plant will look when the cleanup ends.

Fukushima Up Close, 13 Years Later

BY ROBERT HUNZIKER

 OCTOBER 13, 2023
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Fukushima nuclear accident. (2023, October 11).

The world is turning to nuclear power as a solution to global warming, but it is postulated herein that it is a huge mistake that endangers society. One nuclear meltdown causes as much damage over the long-term as a major war. Moreover, according to Dr. Paul Dorfman, chair of the Nuclear Consulting Group, former secretary to the UK Scientific Advisory Committee on Internal Radiation: “It’s important to understand that nuclear is very likely to be a significant climate casualty.”

Also, of interest: France’s Global Warming Predicament discusses nuclear energy’s vulnerability in a global warming world.

Beyond Nuclear International recently published an article about the status of Fukushima as well as an exposé of how the nuclear industry gets away with responsibility for radiation-caused (1) deaths (2) chronic conditions like cancer (3) genetic deformities: A Strategy of Concealment, September 24, 2023, by Kolin Kobayashi, who is a Tokyo-born France-based anti-nuclear activist journalist also serving as president of Echo-Exchange. Kobayashi’s work was posted by CounterPunch under the title: How Agencies That Promote Nuclear Power Are Quietly Managing Its Disaster Narrative.

The following synopsis, including editorial license that adds important death details which defy the nuclear industry’s bogus claims about nuclear safety, opens closed pathways to what’s really going on.

After thirteen years, the declaration of a State of Emergency for Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant still cannot be lifted because of many unknowns, as well as ubiquitous deadly radiation levels. The destroyed reactors are tinderboxes of highly radioactive spent fuel rods that contain more cesium-137 than eighty-five (85) Chernobyls. Cesium-137 in or near a human body erupts into a series of maladies, one after another in short order, depending upon level of exposure: (1) nausea (2) vomiting (3) diarrhea (4) bleeding (5) coma leading to death.

The spent fuel rods at the Fukushima nuclear reactor site are stored in pools of water on the top floor of compromised reactor buildings 100 feet above ground level, except for Unit 3 which completed removal of its spent fuel rods in 2019, an extremely slow, laborious process that’s highly dangerous.

Stored spent fuel rods in open pools of water are the epitome of high-risk. “If the 440 tonne vessel collapses, it could hit the storage pool next to it. If this pool is damaged, even partially, another major disaster could occur.” (Kobayashi) In that regard, there’s significant risk of collapse in the event of a strong earthquake. And Japan is one of the most earthquake prone countries in the world. “The city (Tokyo) government’s experts reckon there is a 70% chance of a magnitude 7, or higher, quake hitting the capital within the next 30 years.” (Source: Japan is Preparing for a Massive Earthquake, The Economist, August 31, 2023)

If exposed to open air, spent fuel rods erupt into a sizzling zirconium fire followed by massive radiation bursts of the most toxic material on the planet. It can upend an entire countryside and force evacuation of major cities. According to the widely recognized nuclear expert Paul Blanch: “Continual storage in spent fuel pools is the most unsafe thing you could do.” Paul Blanch, registered professional engineer, US Navy Reactor Operator & Instructor with 55 years of experience with nuclear engineering and regulatory agencies, is widely recognized as one of America’s leading experts on nuclear power.

Fukushima Daichi Nuclear Power Plant will remain a high-risk explosive scenario for decades ahead. After all, a program for future decommissioning is unclear and overall radiation guesstimates are formidable. All the structures where decommissioning will take place are highly radioactive and as such nearly impossible for the dangers to worker exposure.

TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Company) does not yet know the true extent of damage nor the complete dispersion of corium (molten magma from melted nuclear fuel rods in the core of the reactors). Although engineers believe they’ve located the corium in all three crippled units. For example, when unit 1 was surveyed by a robot, images showed many parts of the concrete foundation supporting the pressure vessel severely damaged by intense heat from corium. Corium, which is the product of the meltdown of fuel rods in the core of the reactor, is so hot that “corium lava can melt upwards of 30cm (12 inches) of concrete in 1 hour.” (Source: The Most Dangerous (Man-Made) Lava Flow, Wired, April 10, 2013)

Furthermore, on specific point: Researchers at Argonne National Laboratory created corium at 2000°C in an experiment. The experiment demonstrated that “cooling with water may not be sufficient” to halt damaging aspects of corium to concrete. According to the Argonne experiment: “One thing to remember — much of the melting of concrete during a meltdown occurs within minutes to hours, so keeping the core cool is vital for stopping the corium from breaching that containment vessel.”

In the case of Fukushima, TEPCO claims the corium did not breach the outer wall of the containment vessels, “although there is a healthy debate about this,” Ibid. Still, an open question remains. The crippled reactors are so hot with radiation that it’s nearly impossible to fully know what’s happening. Dangers of corium: “Long after the meltdown, the lava constituting the corium will remain highly dangerously radioactive for decades-to-centuries.” (Wired)

Regarding the decision to start releasing radioactive water from storage tanks at Fukushima, which water accumulates daily for purposes of keeping the hot stuff from igniting into an indeterminate fireball, the decision to release was approved by the International Atomic Energy Agency: “The IAEA does not have the scientific authority to make reference to the ecological impact of this water discharge, nor has it carried out such a long-term assessment. It is more of a political decision than a scientific one.” (Kobayashi)

Radiation Risks to Society

According to the World Nuclear Association, there were no fatalities due to radiation exposure at Fukushima. And as recently as 2021, Forbes magazine reported No one Died From Radiation At Fukushima: IAEA Boss. It is believed this is a lie and part of a massive coverup.

According to Green Cross (founded in 1993 by Mikhail Gorbachev, who repeatedly spoke out about interrelated threats humanity and our Earth confront from nuclear arms, chemical weapons, unsustainable development, and the human-induced decimation of the planet’s ecology): “Approximately 32 million people in Japan are affected by the radioactive fallout from the nuclear disaster in Fukushima… This includes people who were exposed to radiation and other stress factors resulting from the accident and who are consequently at potential risk from both long and short-term consequences… As with the Chernobyl nuclear accident, which impacted 10 million people, Japan is expected to see increased cancer risk and neuropsychological long-term health consequences.”

With nuclear radiation, the damage to humans shows up years later as cancer and/or deformity of newborns second/third generation. For example, only recently, the truth has come to surface about Chernobyl-related deaths, child deformities, and cancer 30+ years after the event. For example:

* A BBC Future Planet article d/d July 25, 2019, The True Toll of the Chernobyl Disaster: “According to the official, internationally recognized death toll, just 31 people died as an immediate result of Chernobyl while the UN estimates that only 50 deaths can be directly attributed to the disaster. In 2005, it predicted a further 4,000 might eventually die as a result of the radiation exposure… Brown’s research, however, suggests Chernobyl has cast a far longer shadow.”

* “The number of deaths in subsequent decades remains in dispute. The lowest estimates are 4,000; others 90,000 and up to 200,000.” (Source: Janata Weekly: Cuba and the Children of Chernobyl, May 7, 2023)

* According to an article in USA Today d/d February 24, 2022, What Happened at Chernobyl? What to Know About Nuclear Disaster: “At least 28 people were killed by the disaster, but thousands more have died from cancer as a result of radiation that spread after the explosion and fire. The effects of radiation on the environment and humans is still being studied.”

According to Chernobyl Children International, 6,000 newborns are born every year in Ukraine with congenital heart defects called “Chernobyl Heart.”

Fukushima Report: The stress-related effects of Fukushima evacuation and subsequent relocation are also a concern. The evacuation involved a total of over 400,000 individuals, 160,000 of them from within 20km of Fukushima. The number of deaths from the nuclear disaster attributed to stress, fatigue and the hardship of living as evacuees is estimated to be around 1,700 so far. (Source; Fukushima Daiichi Power Plant Disaster: How Many People Were Affected? 2015 Report, Reliefweb, March 9, 2015.

The Fukushima Report was prepared under the direction of Prof. Jonathan M. Samet, Director of the Institute for Global Health at the University of Southern California (USC), as a Green Cross initiative. Green Cross International: GCI is an independent non-profit and nongovernmental organization founded in 1993 by Nobel Peace Laureate Mikhail Gorbachev.

Over time, Japan is expected to see increased cancer risks and neuropsychological long-term health consequences. “The lives of approximately 42 million people have been permanently affected by radioactive contamination caused by the accidents in the Chernobyl and Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plants. Continued exposure to low-level radiation, entering the human body on a daily basis through food intake, is of particular consequence,” Ibid.

Fukushima Deaths

The cocksure pro-nuclear crowd has trumpeted Fukushima as an example of Mother Nature taking lives because of an earthquake and tsunami; whereas the power plant accident proves nuclear power can withstand the worst without unnecessary death and illness. According to nuclear industry reports, all the deaths (16,000) were the fault of Mother Nature, not radiation.

But people in the streets and on the ground in Japan tell a different story about the risks of radiation. They talk about illnesses and death. TEPCO itself has reported few radiation illnesses and no radiation-caused deaths but what if it’s not their responsibility in the first instance, as layers of contractors and subcontractors employ workers to cleanup the toxic mess. If “subcontractor workers die” from radiation exposure, so what? It’s not TEPCO’s responsibility to report worker deaths of subcontractors, and the subcontractors are not motivated to report deaths, which are not reported.

According to credible sources in Japan, death is in the air, to wit: “The ashes of half a dozen unidentified laborers ended up at a Buddhist temple in this town just north of the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant. Some of the dead men had no papers, others left no emergency contacts. Their names could not be confirmed, and no family members had been tracked down to claim their remains. They were simply labeled ‘decontamination troops’ — unknown soldiers in Japan’s massive cleanup campaign to make Fukushima livable again five years after radiation poisoned the fertile countryside… Hideaki Kinoshita, a Buddhist monk… keeps the unidentified laborers’ ashes at his temple, in wooden boxes and wrapped in white cloth.” (Source: Mari Yamaguchi, Fukushima ‘Decontamination Troops’ Often Exploited, Shunned, AP & ABC News, Minamisoma, Japan, Mar 10, 2016)

“The men were among the 26,000 workers — many in their 50s and 60s from the margins of society with no special skills or close family ties — tasked with removing the contaminated topsoil and stuffing it into tens of thousands of black bags lining the fields and roads. They wipe off roofs, clean out gutters and chop down trees in a seemingly endless routine… Coming from across Japan to do a dirty, risky and undesirable job, the workers make up the very bottom of the nation’s murky, caste-like subcontractor system long criticized for labor violations,” Ibid.

The following is part of an interview with Katsutaka Idogawa, former mayor of Futaba, Fukushima Prefecture. (Source: Fukushima Disaster: Tokyo Hides Truth as Children Die, Become Ill from Radiation – Ex-Mayor, RT, April 21, 2014):

SS (question): The United Nations report on the radiation fallout from Fukushima says no radiation-related deaths or acute diseases have been observed among the workers and general public exposed – so it’s not that dangerous after all? Or is there not enough information available to make proper assessments? What do you think?

Katslutaka Idogawa’s response: “This report is completely false. The report was made by a representative of Japan – Professor Hayano. Representing Japan, he lied to the whole world. When I was mayor, I knew many people who died from a heart attack, and then there were many people in Fukushima who died suddenly, even among young people. It’s a real shame that the authorities hide the truth from the whole world, from the UN. We need to admit that actually many people are dying. We are not allowed to say that, but TEPCO employees also are dying. But they keep mum about it.”

Mako Oshidori, interviewed in Germany, director of Free Press Corporation/Japan, investigated several unreported worker deaths, and interviewed a former nurse who quit TEPCO: “I would like to talk about my interview of a nurse who used to work at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) after the accident… He quit his job with TEPCO in 2013, and that’s when I interviewed him… As of now, there are multiple NPP workers that have died, but only the ones who died on the job are reported publicly. Some of them have died suddenly while off work, for instance, during the weekend or in their sleep, but none of their deaths are reported.” (Oshidori)

“Not only that, but they are also not included in the worker death count. For example, there are some workers who quit the job after a lot of radiation exposure… and end up dying a month later, but none of these deaths are either reported, or included in the death toll. This is the reality of the NPP workers.” (Oshidori)

During her interview, Ms. Oshidori commented, “There is one thing that really surprised me here in Europe. It’s the fact that people here think Japan is a very democratic and free country.”

Mako’s full interview “The Hidden Truth about Fukushima”

Alas, two hundred U.S. sailors of the USS Ronald Reagan filed a lawsuit against TEPCO, claiming that they experienced leukemia, ulcers, gall bladder removals, brain cancer, brain tumors, testicular cancer, dysfunctional uterine bleeding, thyroid illness, stomach ailments and other complaints extremely unusual in such young adults. One sailor died from radiation complications. Among the plaintiffs was a sailor who was pregnant during the mission. Her baby was born with multiple genetic mutations.

The sailors that filed the suit participated in “Operation Tomodachi,” providing humanitarian relief after the March 11th, 2011 Fukushima disaster based upon assurances that radiation levels were okay. But that was a lie.

Ultimately, and unsurprisingly, the 9^th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the sailors’ appeal.

In summation, the final word is left to Kolin Kobaryashi: “The international nuclear lobby, which represents only a minority, has the influence and money to dominate the world’s population with immense power and has now united the world’s minority nuclear community into one big galaxy. Many of the citizens who have experienced the world’s three most serious civil nuclear accidents have clearly realized that nuclear energy is too dangerous. These citizens are so divided and conflicted that they feel like a helpless minority.”

“Former prime ministers Junichiro Koizumi and Naoto Kan called on the European Union on Thursday to pursue a path toward zero nuclear power, with the bloc planning to designate it as a form of “green” energy in achieving net-zero emissions by midcentury.” (Source: Ex-Prime Ministers Koizumi and Kan Demand EU Choose Zero Nuclear Power Path, The Japan Times, Jan. 27, 2022)

“Five former Japanese prime ministers issued declarations that Japan should break with nuclear power generation on March 11, the 10th anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami that triggered a nuclear disaster in Fukushima Prefecture… Former prime ministers Morihiro Hosokawa, Tomiichi Murayama, Junichiro Koizumi, Yukio Hatoyama and Naoto Kan signed and released their declarations during the conference. Among them, Koizumi, Hatoyama and Kan took to the podium and shook hands… In his declaration titled ‘Don’t hold back on reversing a mistake: A zero-carbon emission society can be achieved without nuclear power plants,’ Koizumi said, ‘When it comes to the nuclear power plant issue, there is no ruling party or opposition party. Nuclear power plants expose many people’s lives to danger, bring financial ruin, and cause impossible-to-solve nuclear waste problems. We have no choice but to abolish them.” (Source: 5 ex-Japan PMs Call for Country to End Nuclear Power Use on Fukushima 10^th Anniversary, The Mainichi, March 12, 2021)

Japan PM Kishida Orders New Nuclear Power Plant Construction, Nikkei Asia, August 24, 2022.

Robert Hunziker lives in Los Angeles and can be reached at rlhunziker@gmail.com.

Fukushima’s fishing industry survived a nuclear disaster. 12 years on, it fears Tokyo’s next move may finish it off

Story by Emiko Jozuka • Yesterday - CNN


It is still morning when Kinzaburo Shiga, 77, returns to Onahama port after catching a trawler full of fish off Japan’s eastern coast.

That's because the port is around 40 miles from the Fukushima nuclear plant 

CNN goes inside the Fukushima nuclear plant where wastewater is being treated

Duration 3:36    View on Watch

But the third-generation fisherman won’t head straight to market. First, he’ll test his catch for radiation.

It’s a ritual he’s repeated for more than a decade since a devastating earthquake and tsunami triggered a nuclear meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant in 2011, spewing deadly radioactive particles into the surrounding area.

Radiation from the damaged nuclear plant leaked into the sea, prompting authorities to suspend fishing operations off the coast of three prefectures that had previously provided Japan with half of its catch.

That ban lasted over a year and even after it was lifted, Fukushima-based fishermen like Shiga were for years mostly limited to collecting samples for radioactivity tests on behalf of the state-owned electricity firm Tokyo Electric Power Company, or TEPCO, rather than taking their catches to market.

Ocean currents have since dispersed the contaminated water enough that radioactive Cesium is nearly undetectable in fish from Fukushima prefecture. Japan lifted its last remaining restrictions on fish from the area in 2021, and most countries have eased import restrictions.

Shiga and others in the industry thought they’d put the nightmare of the past years behind them.

So when Japan followed through on plans to gradually release more than 1 million metric tons of filtered wastewater into the Pacific Ocean from the summer of 2023 – an action the government says is necessary to decommission the plant safely – the industry reeled.

The Japanese government and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), a United Nations body promoting the peaceful use of nuclear energy, say the controlled release, which is expected to take decades, will meet international safety regulations and not harm the environment, as the water will be treated to remove radioactive elements – with the exception of tritium – and diluted more than 100 times.

But with the deadline for the planned water release looming this summer, Fukushima’s fishermen fear that – whether the release is safe or not – the move will undermine consumer confidence in their catches and once again threaten the way of life they have fought so hard to recover.

A year before the 2011 disaster, government data shows Fukushima’s coastal fishing industry landed catches worth around $69 million. By 2018, that figure had dwindled to little more than $17 million. By 2022, while it had recovered somewhat to around $26 million, it was still just a fraction of what it once was.

“I know that the government has decided to go ahead with the policy of releasing treated wastewater into the sea, but for us fishers, it really feels like they made this decision without our full consent,” said Shiga, adding that it made his “blood boil.”

The wastewater dilemma

In 2011, the earthquake and tsunami cut off the power supply to the Fukushima plant, disabling its cooling systems. This caused the reactor cores to overheat and contaminate water within the plant with highly radioactive material.

Since then, new water has been pumped in to cool fuel debris in the reactors. At the same time, ground and rainwater have leaked in, creating more radioactive wastewater that now needs to be stored and treated.

TEPCO has built over 1,000 massive tanks on the site to store what is now 1.32 million metric tons of wastewater – enough to fill more than 500 Olympic pools.

But space is running out and the company says building more tanks isn’t an option. As decommissioning work approaches a critical stage, it says it needs to free up space to store the fuel debris from the stricken plant.

A Trade Ministry official told CNN the government considered five options, including hydrogen release, underground burial and vapor release, which would have seen wastewater boiled and released into the atmosphere, but in April 2021, officials approved the controlled release of the water into the sea. They reasoned that other nuclear facilities around the world had done this and it would be easier to monitor.


Fukushima’s fishing industry survived a nuclear disaster. 12 years on, it fears Tokyo’s next move may finish it off© Provided by CNNTEPCO has built over 1,000 massive tanks on this site to store what is now 1.32 million metric tons of wastewater, in Okuma of Fukushima prefecture. - Daniel Campisi/CNN

The IAEA told CNN it will also monitor and review the release for as long as necessary, at the request of the Japanese government.

While radioactive wastewater contains dangerous elements including Cesium and Strontium, TEPCO says the majority of those particles can be separated from the water and removed. TEPCO claims its filtering system, called advanced liquid processing (ALPS), can bring down the amount of those elements far below regulatory standards.

But one hydrogen isotope cannot be taken away, as there is currently no technology available to do so. This isotope is radioactive tritium, and the scientific community is divided on the risk its dissemination carries.

How safe is tritium?

TEPCO and the Japanese government say that tritium occurs naturally in the environment. They say that the concentration of tritiated water it plans to discharge would be on par or lower than the amount other countries allow. Since 2021, they’ve been on a mission to promote public awareness about the wastewater and their plans for it, releasing videos and creating a multilingual portal.

The IAEA also says that releasing small amounts of tritium can be safe because it is already present in small quantities in everything from rain and sea water to tap water; small amounts even exist naturally in the human body.

However, experts are divided over the concept of “safe” radiation, with some arguing it is to a large extent a political rather than a scientific concept.


Fukushima’s fishing industry survived a nuclear disaster. 12 years on, it fears Tokyo’s next move may finish it off© Provided by CNNConstruction workers assemble an undersea tunnel through which TEPCO plans to release treated wastewater into the sea, in Okuma of Fukushima prefecture on April 12, 2023. - Daniel Campisi/CNN

“For decades, nuclear power plants worldwide – including in the United States, Canada, Britain, France, China and South Korea – have been releasing waste contaminated with tritium, each under its own national quota,” said Tim Mousseau, an environmental scientist at the University of South Carolina.

But Mousseau argues tritium is overlooked because many countries are invested in nuclear energy, and “there’s no way to produce it without also generating vast amounts of tritium.”

“If people started picking on TEPCO in Fukushima, then the practice of releasing tritium to the environment in all of these other nuclear power plants would need to be examined as well. So, it opens up a can of worms,” he said, adding the biological consequences of exposure to tritium have not been studied sufficiently.

In 2012, a French literature review study said tritium can be toxic to the DNA and reproductive processes of aquatic animals, particularly invertebrates, and the sensitivity of different species to various levels of tritium needs to be further investigated.

TEPCO’s website states that it started assessing the effect of tritium on fish from Fukushima last year. A technical document published by the company in 2022 stated that “fish tritium measurement is very difficult.” It says “there are only a few analysis agencies capable of performing this measurement,” and they do not all produce the same findings.


Fukushima’s fishing industry survived a nuclear disaster. 12 years on, it fears Tokyo’s next move may finish it off© Provided by CNNA TEPCO researcher conducts a radiation impact assessment of the ALPS-treated water in a laboratory in Okuma of Fukushima prefecture on April 12, 2023. - Daniel Campisi/CNN

Currently, countries set different standards for the concentration of tritium allowed in drinking water. For example. Australia, which has no nuclear power plants, allows more than 76,000 becquerel per liter, a measure used to gauge radioactivity, while the WHO’s limit is 10,000. Meanwhile, the US and the European Union have much more conservative limits – 740 and 100 becquerel per liter respectively.

Ian Fairlie, an independent consultant on radioactivity in the environment, told CNN that “two wrongs don’t make a right” when it comes to Japan’s decision to release tritiated water. He argues TEPCO should build more storage tanks to allow for the decay of the radioactive tritium, which has a half-life of 12.3 years.

Lack of trust for the ‘nuclear village’

In Japan, the Fukushima wastewater issue has become highly contentious due to a lack of trust among influential advocates of nuclear energy, or what’s locally known as the “nuclear village.”

The informal group includes members of Japan’s ruling party (the Liberal Democratic Party), the Ministry of Economy Trade and Industry and the nuclear industry.

“(The nuclear village) used to tell us that nuclear energy is 100% safe – but it wasn’t, as the Fukushima Daiichi plant accident revealed,” said Koichi Nakano, a political scientist at Sophia University, in Tokyo.

A series of missteps after the disaster further eroded public trust, according to a 2016 report written by Kohta Juraku, a researcher at Tokyo Denki University.

For instance, in 2012, the government and TEPCO presented a proposed action plan to local fishing representatives that involved pumping up groundwater before it flooded into the nuclear reactor buildings and releasing it into the sea. Fishing bodies were on board but the plan was it postponed until 2014 after 300 tons of radioactive water leaked from the plant into the sea, infuriating fishers.

Standing between the towering wastewater tanks, Kenichi Takahara, a risk communicator at TEPCO told CNN that the company is aware that people in Japan and overseas are skeptical of the company’s assurances.

“While TEPCO has been promoting nuclear safety in the first place, the nuclear accident happened in 2011. So, we understand that there are many people who can’t trust us,” said the TEPCO official.

“We are hoping that if the IAEA and other organizations can show them that there is no problem, people will understand us,” Takahara added.

The problem of changing mindsets

Japanese officials told CNN that they have taken the voices of locals in Fukushima into consideration and will send a message to other nations and consumers around the world that the treated water is safe to release.

Tokyo has also created a fund of 30 billion yen ($225 million) to buy and store freezable seafood if consumer confidence takes a hit following the release, an official from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry told CNN.

And in an effort to convince both fishermen and consumers that the water to be released is safe, in March 2022 TEPCO started conducting tests on the tritium concentrations in fish, shellfish and seaweed reared in regular seawater as compared to those raised in ALPS-treated water.


Fukushima’s fishing industry survived a nuclear disaster. 12 years on, it fears Tokyo’s next move may finish it off© Provided by CNNA TEPCO researcher feeds flounder that are being raised on site in both seawater and ALPS treated water that has been diluted with seawater, in Okuma of Fukushima prefecture on April 12, 2023. - Daniel Campisi/CNN

But Satsuki Takahashi, an anthropologist specializing in sustainability studies at Hosei University, warned that changing mindsets is no easy feat.

“From the consumer’s perspective, whether it’s processed or not, this is wastewater. It’s hard for (people) to grasp what safety means or what risks mean,” she said.

“One of the biggest issues in terms of this wastewater, for those who used to purchase the fish from Fukushima before the disaster, is whether they are going to come back and buy the fish once the label states its provenance.”

For fishers like Shiga, the work to restore their way of life is far from over.

“We’re taking the initiative and appealing to consumers so they understand (our products are safe), but we have a hard time reaching them,” said Shiga, who fears that countries may reimpose bans on imports of Fukushima fish following the wastewater release.

“If the government releases the water into the sea off Fukushima now, everything we’ve done so far and our current efforts will be wasted,” he said.

CNN’s Moeri Karasawa, Carlotta Dotto, Natalie Leung, Henrik Pettersson, Will Mullery and Alberto Mier contributed from Tokyo, Hong Kong, London, Atlanta and Berkeley.
CNN.com

Japan planning to release over a million tonnes of radioactive water into sea from Fukushima power plant

Coolant contains toxic element which cannot be removed

Harry Cockburn
Friday 31 January 2020 20:03

Tanks containing contaminated water at the Fukushima nuclear plant ( AP )

Massive amounts of radioactive water being stored at Japan’s Fukushima power plant could be released into the sea under plans provisionally accepted by the country’s government.

Tokyo Electric has collected nearly 1.2 million tonnes of contaminated water from cooling pipes used to keep fuel cores from melting since the plant was devastated by the earthquake and tsunami which hit eastern Japan in 2011.

The water, containing 62 radioactive elements, is stored in huge tanks on the site of the now disabled power plant, but Tokyo Electric has said it will run out of room to store the water by 2022.

The water has been treated and Tokyo Electric said it is able to remove all radioactive particles from the water to levels not harmful to humans, except tritium, an isotope of hydrogen which is more difficult to separate from water.

A panel of experts working for Japan’s economy and industry ministry concluded that letting the water run into the sea was the best option after looking at other proposals. The only other viable option considered was to let the water evaporate.
Inside the twisted remains of Fukushima nuclear plant

Tokyo Electric Power Company officials and journalists 

and journalists visited the site yesterday

In Friday’s proposal, the ministry said the controlled release to the sea is superior because its route is predictable and easier to sample and monitor.

“Compared to evaporation, ocean release can be done more securely,” the committee said, pointing to common practice around the world where nuclear power stations operating under normal conditions routinely release water containing tritium into the sea.

But the decision will alarm neighbouring countries and comes ahead of Japan’s hosting of the 2020 Olympic Games, with some events due to be held less than 60km away from the Fukushima site.

Fishermen and residents also fear health effects from releasing the radioactive water as well as harm to the region’s image and farm industries.

Neighbouring South Korea has retained a ban on imports of seafood from Japan’s Fukushima region imposed after the nuclear disaster and summoned a senior Japanese embassy official last year to explain how the Fukushima water would be dealt with, Reuters reported.

South Korean athletes are planning to bring their own radiation detectors and food to the Games.

Experts say there is no established method to fully separate tritium from water, but it is not a problem in small amounts. Government officials also say tritium is routinely released from existing nuclear power plants around the world.

The report acknowledges the water releases would harm industries that still face reluctant consumers despite safety checks. It promised to reinforce monitoring of tritium levels and food safety checks to address safety concerns.

Additional reporting by agencies

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Japan fishermen, locals seek halt to Fukushima water release

AFP 

Published September 4, 2023 

More than 100 fishermen and locals living near Fukushima will file a lawsuit this week seeking to stop the release of wastewater from the stricken Japanese nuclear plant, they said on Monday.

Twelve years after one of the world’s worst nuclear accidents, Japan began on August 24 discharging treated cooling water diluted with seawater into the Pacific, insisting it was safe.

Many Japanese fishermen have been against the release, fearing that it will undo years of efforts to improve the industry’s image in the wake of the 2011 catastrophe.

The more than 100 plaintiffs in Fukushima and neighbouring prefectures will file the lawsuit in the Fukushima District Court on Friday, Sugie Tanji, a member of the group’s secretariat, told AFP.

“The government failed to keep to its promise of gaining agreement from fishermen before taking such a decision to release,” she said.

“This is a wrong policy as it ignores strong opposition from not only the Fukushima fishermen’s cooperative but also from cooperatives across the country,” a group statement said.

“The release to the ocean can never be tolerated as it brings about further suffering to victims of the nuclear accident,” it added.

The water release has generated a fierce backlash from China, including a blanket ban on Japanese seafood imports.

Japanese government offices and businesses have also been bombarded with thousands of nuisance calls from Chinese phone numbers.

The Tokyo city government alone received 34,300 calls from August 24-31, it says.

Japanese government officials have made efforts to reassure the public that fish and other produce from Fukushima is safe to eat.

Last week, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and the US envoy to Japan, Rahm Emanuel, among others, ate Fukushima fish in front of TV cameras.

‘Ours is the best’

Before the water release, China was Japan’s biggest export destination for seafood and Beijing’s ban has people in the sector worried.

Tokyo wholesaler Yoshinobu Yoshihashi’s business has seen shipments of items including oysters, sea urchins and splendid alfonsino to some Asian neighbours “more than half”.

“We’re having it quite rough,” Yoshihashi told AFP at the huge Toyosu fish market on Saturday.

“Especially in places like Hong Kong and Macau, the damage is quite acute. We’re hearing from our clients there that their customers aren’t coming in any more, and that they are shunning Japanese fish,” he said.

The Japanese government “should have done more to communicate globally the safety of the water before releasing it. There are some people even within Japan who say they’re scared,” he said.

“I have always been and still am proud of Japanese fish. Ours is the best,” he added.

Kishida has already promised aid for the industry and ministers were reportedly set to hash out details on Monday.

Japan boosts aid to fish sector after Fukushima discharge

The release of wastewater from the Fukushima nuclear plant prompted China to ban Japan's seafood imports. Japanese officials say they are now looking to boost export markets in places such as Taiwan, the US and Europe.

Japan's government has announced a new aid package of 20.7 billion yen ($141 million; €130 million) to help the local fishery industry following a Chinese ban on all Japanese seafood exports.

Beijing imposed the blanket measure after Japan started discharging treated radioactive water from the damaged Fukushima nuclear plant into the Pacific Ocean on August 24.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said the funding came on top of an existing 80 billion yen set aside to help seafood businesses stay afloat and combat damage to the reputation of Japanese products.

"We will protect the Japanese fisheries industry at all costs," Kishida said.

The new aid package will be used to find markets for Japanese seafood to replace China and fund government purchases of seafood. Officials said they planned to foster new export destinations in Taiwan, the US, Europe, the Middle East, and some southeast Asian countries.

How have the bans affected Japan's fish sector?

Before the release of the wastewater, China was the biggest export destination for Japanese fish, accounting for 22.5% of the total.

Hong Kong, the second-biggest market with 20%, has also blocked seafood imports from Fukushima and nine other prefectures.

The bans are a major blow to Japan's seafood industry, affecting prices and sales of products as far away from Fukushima as the northern island of Hokkaido.
Japan's Fukushima decision may impact fish exports

A massive earthquake and tsunami in 2011 caused core meltdowns at the Fukushima plant. Since then, the shut-down reactors have had to be cooled with water that was then stored in tanks.

The decision to start releasing that wastewater into the ocean, a process that is expected to take decades to complete, was met with an outcry at home and abroad.

The government has sought to reassure the public that seafood from Fukushima is safe to eat. Last week, Kishida and US envoy to Japan Rahm Emanuel visited the area to eat local fish in front of TV cameras.

Prime Minister Kishida wants the Japanese public to eat more seafood to help the local industry hit by China's ban

 Kyodo/AP Photo/picture alliance

Japanese officials say all seawater and fish samples taken since the release of the treated wastewater have been far below set safety limits for radioactivity.

nm/jcg (AP, AFP)

 

IAEA team gathers marine samples near Fukushima as treated radioactive water is released into sea

by Mari Yamaguchi

A team of experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) with

 scientists from China, South Korea and Canada observe the inshore fish

 during a morning auction at Hisanohama Port in Iwaki, northeastern Japan 

Thursday, Oct. 19, 2023. They are visiting Fukushima for its first marine

 sampling mission since the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant started 

releasing the treated radioactive wastewater into the sea.

 Credit: AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, Pool

A member of the International Atomic Energy Agency team visiting Fukushima for its first marine sampling since the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant started releasing treated radioactive wastewater into the sea said Thursday he does not expect any rise in radiation levels in the fish caught in the regional seas.

The IAEA team watched flounder and other popular kinds of fish being caught off the coast earlier Thursday and brought on boats to the Hisanohama port in southern Fukushima for an auction.

"I can say that we don't expect to see any change starting in the fish," said Paul McGinnity, an IAEA marine radiology scientist.

A small rise in the levels of tritium, which cannot be removed from the Fukushima Daiichi wastewater by the plant's treatment system called ALPS, is possible in locations close to the discharge points, but the levels of radioactivity are expected to be similar to those measured before the discharge last year, he said.

Fukushima Daiichi started releasing wastewater into the sea on Aug. 24. The release, which is expected to continue for decades, has been strongly opposed by fishing groups and neighboring countries including South Korea, where hundreds of people have protested.

China immediately banned all imports of Japanese seafood the day the release began, badly hurting Japanese seafood producers, processors and exporters, and Russia recently joined China in the trade restrictions.

A team of experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) with scientists from

 China, South Korea and Canada observe the inshore fish as the sample at Hisanohama

 Port in Iwaki, northeastern Japan Thursday, Oct. 19, 2023. They are visiting Fukushima 

its first marine sampling mission since the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant started

 releasing the treated radioactive wastewater into the sea. 

Credit: AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, Pool

The IAEA has reviewed the safety of the wastewater release and concluded in July that if carried out as planned, it would have a negligible impact on the environment, marine life and human health.

During the Oct. 16-23 visit, the IAEA team also inspected the collection and processing of seawater and marine sediment near the plant, which suffered triple meltdowns following the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

The IAEA's visit is significant not only because it is the first since the discharge began but also since the IAEA will be able to see firsthand how the fish is sampled and packed, McGinnity said. This will help them better evaluate the results, not just from laboratory testing and data analysis, he said.

IAEA selected six species of fish—olive flounder, crimson sea bream, redwing searobin, Japanese jack mackerel, silver croaker and vermiculated puffer fish—because they are known to have higher levels of radioactivity than other species due to the areas they tend to move around in, McGinnity said.

The Japanese government asked the IAEA to conduct the environmental and fish sampling to build confidence about the data that Japan provides amid skepticism in some IAEA member states, McGinnity said without identifying which countries.

The sample collection team includes two staff from the IAEA Marine Environment Laboratories in Monaco, as well as experts from laboratories in China, South Korea and Canada.

A team of experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) with scientists from

 China, South Korea and Canada observe the inshore fish during a morning auction at 

Hisanohama Port in Iwaki, northeastern Japan Thursday, Oct. 19, 2023. They are visiting 

Fukushima for its first marine sampling mission since the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear 

power plant started releasing the treated radioactive wastewater into the sea. 

Credit: AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, Pool

The fish collected Thursday were to be shipped to a Fisheries Agency laboratory in Chiba, near Tokyo, where the IAEA team will inspect them on Friday.

They will send identical samples to about a dozen participating laboratories, including in Japan, China, South Korea and Canada, for comparison and analysis of radioactivity and evaluation, the IAEA said.

The sampling work will be followed by a separate IAEA task force that will review the safety of the treated radioactive water.

Japan's government has set up a relief fund to help find new markets and reduce the impact of China's seafood ban. Measures include the temporary purchase, freezing and storage of seafood and promotion of seafood sales at home.

TEPCO and the government say discharging the water into the sea is unavoidable because the tanks will reach their 1.37 million-ton capacity next year and space at the plant will be needed for its decommissioning, which is expected to take decades, if it is achievable at all.

They say the water is treated to reduce radioactive materials to safe levels, and then is diluted with seawater by hundreds of times to make it much safer than international standards. Some experts say such long-term release of low-dose radioactivity is unprecedented and requires close monitoring.

© 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

Chinese scientists join Fukushima water review