Japan wants to redirect radioactive water to the sea

Japan wants to filter huge amounts of radioactive cooling water from the Fukushima nuclear wreck through a tunnel into the sea, thus facing resistance at home and abroad.

On March 11, 2011 it came Fukushima nuclear power plant to a super disaster. Since then, operator Tepco has had to cool three of the destroyed reactors with water. About 140 tons of polluted water is produced daily, which is filtered and stored in more than 1,000 tanks. Problem: This fall the tank space will be exhausted.

For this reason, the Japanese government has decided to filter, dilute and discharge the water into the sea from the spring of next year. For this purpose, Tepco plans to build a tunnel about one kilometer long at the seabed through which cooling water will be disposed of from nuclear debris.

According to NHK, the plans are currently being examined by the Atomic Energy Regulatory Commission. TEPCO hopes to start building the mitigation and tunnel plants from June and have them ready in April next year.

The Japanese government against Fischer, China and South Korea

She added that it was important to gain an understanding of all those affected. Local fisheries associations fear damage to their business. Environmentalists and Japan’s neighbors such as China and South Korea are also angry and are calling for the plans to be scrapped.

More than one million tons of water has already been stored in tanks at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear ruin site. The cooling water is pre-treated, but the ALPS filter system cannot filter the isotopic tritium. However, the Japanese government and operator Tepco argue that tritium is not harmful to human health in small quantities. In addition, the water must be diluted below the guideline values ​​before the planned dumping.

DPA, sm

dpa