Current Events > Japanese people concerned by Government plan to dump nuclear waste into the sea.

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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.

The residents worry that the water discharge 12 years after the nuclear disaster could deal another setback to Fukushimas image and hurt their businesses and livelihoods. "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.

It's not yet clear whether, or how, damaging the release will be. But residents say they feel shikataganai meaning helpless. Suzuki has requested officials to hold the plan at least until the swimming season ends in mid-August.

If you ask me what I think about the water release, Im 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 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 governments awareness campaign that critics say only highlights safety. We dont know if it's safe yet, Suzuki said. We just cant tell until much later.

The Usuiso area used to have more than a dozen family-run inns before the disaster. Now, Suzukis 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.

The March 11, 2011, earthquake and tsunami destroyed the Fukushima Daiichi plants 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 plants 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. Its eerie, he adds, to have to live near the damaged plant for decades.

Fukushimas 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.

Fukushimas 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.

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 dont 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."

Full Article: https://japantoday.com/category/national/fukushima-plant-water-release-within-weeks-raises-worries-about-setbacks-to-businesses-livelihoods

https://i.imgur.com/q4FSyAQ.jpg

Japan rebooting Mr Burns as anime it seems.

Well yeah they've seen Godzilla

Why is a 70 year old innkeeper's opinions even relevant?

opopopza posted...

Why is a 70 year old innkeeper's opinions even relevant?

Equal voice for every citizen.

I'd be concerned too, but not judging. If there is an evidence that it was safe, then I'm okay with it.

Seems bad

opopopza posted...

Why is a 70 year old innkeeper's opinions even relevant?

Japanese people respect the elderly people.

Linze posted...

Japanese people respect the elderly people.

Yeah, this is not USA.

opopopza posted...

Why is a 70 year old innkeeper's opinions even relevant?

I mean the article was about concerned Japanese citizens and you're confused why we're hearing from concerned Japanese citizens...

Foppe posted...

Yeah, this is not USA.

Which has its share of eyebrow raising considering older people are making things worse since they are in places of power.

Oddly a 69 year old resident referred to as only "G. Jira" is calling for even more nuclear waste to be dumped in the sea.

You can always find people opposed to anything.

Considering that various international scientific organizations found it safe (and it's more dilute than what we do here in the US or other nations)... pointless fearmongering.

opopopza posted...

Why is a 70 year old innkeeper's opinions even relevant?

Thank you. This. I'm not saying I have full unabated faith in a government saying the shit they want to dump in the ocean is totes safe, but a 70 year old innkeeper is not the opinion that's going to sway me.

What if that innkeeper was an avid anime fan? Would their opinion matter more?

China dumps more into the ocean anyways.

Requiem posted...

Considering that various international scientific organizations found it safe (and it's more dilute than what we do here in the US or other nations)... pointless fearmongering.

I mean "The US and China does worse" =/= "its safe"

The simple reality is they have no idea If this is safe or not until they do it.

There is literally no safe way to dispose of nuclear waste and nuclear waste is a recent phenomena. Scientists are just guessing and trying things.

We don't even know if not dumping the waste is safe either.

Hence the concern

There's a reason why the best plan the US can come up with is "carve a big hole in a mountain, dump it there and hope for the best"

All nuclear nations do it, not just US and China... and at greater concentrations.

And IAEA has said repeatedly that it's safe, specifically with regards to the Japanese plan.

So, yeah, I take the words of the international organization charged with nuclear science over that inn keeper or random "concerned" people with no relevant background.

Requiem posted...

All nuclear nations do it.

And IAEA has said repeatedly that it's safe, specifically with regards to the Japanese plan.

So, yeah, I take the words of the international organization charged with nuclear science over that inn keeper or random "concerned" people with no relevant background.

User with no relevant background opinion noted

Yeah, if I was the guy making the claim, sure.
But I'm stating the claim made by IAEA.

What's your source, Irony?