At about 10:30 local time on October 5, Japan's Tokyo Electric Power Company launched the second batch of nuclear contaminated water discharge into the sea at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, which is expected to last for 17 days.
At about 11 o'clock local time on October 5, a 6.2 magnitude earthquake struck the southeast sea of Honshu, Japan, followed by a tsunami, causing serious impact. The Japan Meteorological Agency issued an alert to the arrival of a tsunami. According to the China Earthquake Network, the earthquake occurred at 29.90 degrees north latitude and 140.05 degrees east longitude, with a magnitude of 6.2 and a focal depth of 10 kilometers.
According to China News Network, at about 11 a.m. local time on the 5th, a 6.6-magnitude earthquake occurred in the waters near the Izu Islands in Japan, causing a tsunami. The Meteorological Agency then issued an alert that the tsunami was expected to reach the local coast in 1 hour. The tsunami will have a wave height of about 1 meter and will affect the Izu Islands, Hachijo Island, and Izu Oshima Island. The Japan Meteorological Agency has urged people to stay away from the coast and estuaries, and has advised those working in the sea to urgently go ashore.
About 15,000 tons of nuclear-contaminated water flowed into the sea, and this is just the beginning. Since the official launch of the Fukushima nuclear contaminated water discharge into the sea on August 24, about 15,000 tons of contaminated water has flowed into the Pacific Ocean. The first batch of sub-contaminated water discharges took place from August 24 to September 11, discharging a total of 7,788 tons of contaminated water.
The second batch of nuclear contaminated water discharged about 7,800 tons. According to Japan's plan, a total of 31,200 tons of contaminated water is expected to be discharged in four installments in 2023. Before the official discharge began, 1.3 million tons of contaminated water had been stored, and it is expected that it will take at least 30 years to completely discharge this contaminated water.
However, in addition to the discharge of contaminated water, the Fukushima nuclear power plant is now facing new difficulties. The removal of empty water storage tanks has produced a lot of garbage, but TEPCO says it is still inconclusive about what to do with it and where it will be placed. At the same time, in the process of treating nuclear-contaminated water, Japan's multi-nuclide treatment system produces a large amount of sludge containing radioactive materials, but the capacity of facilities to treat this sludge has been exhausted.
Although TEPCO plans to dehydrate and solidify the sludge, construction of the treatment facility has been postponed until 2026. At present, the only thing that can be done is to suppress as much sludge as possible. Fukushima expressed concern about the waste and sludge that could not be replaced, and called on the Japanese government and Tokyo Electric Power Company to "fully explain specific ways to reduce water storage tanks."
People inside and outside Japan continue to oppose the discharge of nuclear-contaminated water. Fishermen and people in many parts of Japan have expressed strong opposition to the discharge of nuclear-contaminated water. Some Japanese have even filed lawsuits against the government and Tokyo Electric Power Company, accusing them of "intentionally polluting the environment" and demanding an immediate halt to the discharge of nuclear-contaminated water. Internationally, Russia, South Korea and other countries have also expressed concern and concern about this.
Chen Xu, Permanent Representative of China to the United Nations Office at Geneva and other international organizations in Switzerland, said that the Japanese government's unilateral and forcible launch of the discharge of Fukushima nuclear contaminated water into the sea has seriously violated the rights to health, development and environment of people around the world, and has been questioned by the international community and strongly opposed by people at home and abroad.
Under these circumstances, the Fukushima local assembly and the international community are increasingly calling for the Japanese government to stop pollutant discharges, and international concerns about the discharge of Fukushima's contaminated water into the sea continue to spread.