‘It is not too late’: Japan urged to change course on radioactive wastewater release

It is not too late for Japan to change course on releasing treated nuclear wastewater into the Pacific Ocean, an independent expert advising the Pacific Islands Forum said.

More than 1 million tonnes of water from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi power plant will find its way into the sea over the next three decades.

The Tokyo Electric Company (Tepco) began the discharge on Thursday (local time), with an official telling journalists they would ensure safety and quality during the operation.

But Professor Ferenc Dalnoki-Veress, of the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in Monterey, California, said Tepco’s track record provided little reason for confidence in the 30-year release plan.

Dalnoki-Veress is a member of the panel of experts advising Pacific leaders on Fukushima-related issues.

He is also the scientist-in-residence at Middlebury’s James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies and co-author of Nuclear Choices for Twenty-first Century: A Citizen’s Guide.

On March 11, 2011, an earthquake and tsunami destroyed the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant’s cooling systems, causing the meltdown of three reactors and the release of large amounts of radiation.

Water used to cool the damaged reactor cores, which remain highly radioactive, has since leaked but was collected and stored in tanks.

Now the tanks are full and need to be emptied, the Japanese government said, as a necessary step for the ongoing Fukushima cleanup and decommission.

Japan was given the green light by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on July 5, with director general Raphael Grossi saying Tokyo’s proposal had met international safety standards.

The move has been heavily criticised by some Pacific leaders, civil society and environment advocates, with accusations that the UN nuclear watchdog was “siding with Japan” which Grossi has denied.

During his visit to New Zealand in July, Grossi assured Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta that Japan’s plan was “safe”.

Grossi also told Stuff the IAEA was committed to engaging with Japan “not only before, but also during and after the treated water discharges occurred”.

But the forum said its panel of experts remained unconvinced by the IAEA’s findings,

Forum secretary-general Henry Puna said Japan should not have gone ahead with the release until there was enough information available to make a fully informed assessment of what the short-term and long-term impacts were to human health and the environment.

He said forum member states were committed to the Treaty of Rarotonga and legally bound to keep the region free of environmental pollution by radioactive and nuclear waste and other radioactive matter.

“They uphold legal obligations to prevent ocean dumping and any action to assist or encourage dumping by other states.”

Dalnoki-Veress said the Pacific Island nations and Japan had “borne witness to the terrifying effects of nuclear weapons. It is not too late for Japan to change course”.

China has announced a ban on all Japanese seafood – “effective immediately, and will affect all imports of aquatic products”.

In a statement, Chinese customs officials said they would “dynamically adjust relevant regulatory measures as appropriate to prevent the risks of nuclear-contaminated water discharge to the health and food safety of our country”.

Dr David Krofcheck, of the University of Auckland, said the “danger of indiscriminately releasing nuclear fission products into the ocean is that the products can find their way into the food chain.

“A good guide for having confidence in the safe release of radiation is to reduce radiation exposure to make it as low as reasonably achievable.

“Filtering out the fission nuclei from the stored wastewater is the best that can be done.”

Niue has also voiced concerns, saying the impacts to human health and the environment were still unclear.

“It’s unfortunate that the government of Japan has gone ahead with this discharge of nuclear wastewater into the Pacific so soon,” Premier Dalton Tagelagi said in a statement.

“The majority of Niue are coastal peoples, and the ocean is an integral part of our culture, traditions and livelihoods, and we must protect it at all costs.

“This release of treated nuclear wastewater is a transboundary and intergenerational issue and similar concerns were shared by other member nations at the recent Pacific Leaders Forum,” the Niuean leader said.

Leaders from Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands and New Caledonia, who met in Port Vila this week, called on Kishida to delay the discharge.

But not everyone is against the release.

Cook Islands, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Fiji, and the Federated States of Micronesia have publicly supported Japan.

Associate Professor Tony Hooker, director of the Centre for Radiation Research, Education and Innovation at The University of Adelaide, said this was not the first time for tritium from nuclear facilities to be released into the waterways.

“It has been undertaken worldwide with no evidence of environmental or human health implications. I support Japan’s decision and believe they have a robust radiation management plan that has been approved by the IAEA, the Japanese NRC, as well as other radiation protection agencies worldwide.

“With the likely comprehensive independent monitoring of the environment to occur around the release site of Fukushima, this will hopefully alleviate some of the fear that has been generated around this issue.”

Professor Jamie Quinton, of the School of Natural Sciences at Massey University, said PIF’s panel and the IAEA would be monitoring radiation levels prior to, during and after the release.

“Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco) has built the infrastructure to extract tonnes of newly contaminated water each day. It includes a processing plant called ALPS (Advanced Liquid Processing System), which filters most of the radioactive elements present in the wastewater.

“Of the radioactive elements present in the treated wastewater, the primary component is tritium, which is an isotope of hydrogen. Wherever we find hydrogen, including in water, tritium is present in extremely low amounts.

“The treated Fukushima wastewater will have a significantly greater concentration of tritium, but by releasing into the ocean, the tritium concentration will quickly become extremely diluted to far less than one part per trillion. Over a 30-year period, 81.5% of the tritium radioactivity will be lost.”