Japan forcibly pushes the discharge of nuclear-contaminated water into the sea, and the revitalization of Fukushima is far away

International Online Report (Reporter He Xinlei, Wang Meng): At about 1 p.m. on August 24 this year, amid strong domestic and international opposition, Japan's Tokyo Electric Power Company officially launched the plan to discharge nuclear-contaminated water from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station into the sea. So far, more than 20,000 tons of nuclear-contaminated water have been discharged into the Pacific Ocean through three rounds of discharge. What impact will the plan to discharge the nuclear-contaminated water into the sea imposed by TEPCO and the Japanese government have on the lives of the local residents of Fukushima? What is the effect of the Japanese government's promise to revive Fukushima's economy?

Starting in the summer of 2023, local people in Fukushima who protested against the government's discharge of water from the sea have set up "tent villages" to organize sit-ins and rallies against the discharge of nuclear contaminated water. To this day, the protests continue on the ground.

Masami Yoshizawa, 69, is a resident of Nanami Town, Fukushima Prefecture. Before the Great East Japan Earthquake struck in 2011, he ran a ranch in Nanami Town, but natural disasters and a nuclear accident took away his peaceful life, and he and his fellow villagers had hoped that TEPCO and the Japanese government would handle the aftermath. However, more than a decade later, Fukushima residents are waiting for the Japanese government to forcibly start the plan to discharge the nuclear-contaminated water into the sea. Yoshizawa said he would no longer trust any of TEPCO's and the Japanese government's rhetoric. "Nuclear contaminated water is called treated water, but it is not safe. It is unreasonable to say that something dangerous is diluted (and then it is safe). When the Japanese government's policy on how to deal with a nuclear accident was introduced, I decided not to listen to them anymore. ”

After the Japanese government announced the start of the plan to discharge the nuclear-contaminated water into the sea, Masashi Yoshizawa went fishing in the sea of Nanami Town almost every day, and sent the fish he caught for testing at his own expense, and he wanted to know the real situation of the impact of the nuclear-contaminated water on the ocean. "I sent the fish I caught to the relevant authorities for testing, but they only tested for cesium. In fact, there are more than 60 kinds of radioactive elements in question, and it is not reassuring to detect only cesium. ”

Before the Fukushima nuclear accident, the town of Nanami had a permanent population of 21,500 people, and it was once the most populous town in the vicinity of the Fukushima nuclear power plant. Now, as many as 20,000 people have chosen not to return home. Although Fukushima Prefecture said that it had carried out a large-scale clean-up of radioactive contamination from the radiation area of the nuclear accident, when TEPCO and the Japanese government forcibly launched a plan to discharge the nuclear-contaminated water into the sea despite the opposition of the villagers, the villagers completely lost the confidence to return to their hometowns.

Watching the massive loss of population and the gradual loss of his hometown, Hideki Ishii, a seafood processor in Fukushima Prefecture, is worried. He said that the plan has had a serious impact on the local aquatic product processing industry and the sales and transportation industry, and that the villagers' perseverance here for many years has been exchanged for a gloomy future and another injury. "It took us 10 years to get back to where we are now. The discharge of nuclear-contaminated water brings us back to square one. This concern is very strong. We have always been against it, but the government has turned a deaf ear to our voice, and we are angry. ”

Iwaki City, Fukushima Prefecture, was once a famous surfing spot in Japan. In the aftermath of the nuclear accident, the overcrowding of the tourist season is gone. Local tourism and surfing industry players have criticized TEPCO and the Japanese government for pushing ahead with plans to discharge nuclear-contaminated water into the sea, adding to the already strained industry.

Also outraged were construction crews from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Recently, a gentleman, who did not want to be identified, gave a lecture in Japan's Kanto region about his experience of leukemia due to prolonged exposure to nuclear radiation after he went to work at a nuclear power plant after a nuclear accident. He said that although he had received a work-related injury recognition from the Japanese government, he had been unable to wait for compensation from TEPCO. "Seven years have passed since the start of the lawsuit, and there has been no result in the first trial, and the oral argument of the lawsuit has been held 23 times. In Japan's nuclear energy-related compensation law, there is a system for the Japanese government and the relevant power companies to compensate for the compensation, but TEPCO says, 'You have leukemia and you have been recognized as having a work-related injury, but you cannot compensate for this disease because of your own reasons.'" ”

The victim said there may be workers like him who have suffered from leukemia or other illnesses in the line of duty, and he hopes that TEPCO and the Japanese government will take responsibility for properly addressing the legacy of the Fukushima nuclear disaster.

In fact, there are many cases of illness caused by the Fukushima nuclear accident. In January last year, six Japanese people who had lived in Fukushima filed a class action lawsuit with the Tokyo District Court, claiming compensation from TEPCO for "thyroid cancer due to the effects of radioactive materials caused by the Fukushima nuclear accident." The lawsuit has also sparked widespread public support.

Twelve years have passed since the Fukushima nuclear disaster, but TEPCO and the Japanese government have always had problems dealing with the aftermath, and on top of that, the forced release of nuclear-contaminated water into the sea has left Fukushima residents with no future in sight: it is still difficult for the victims to return to their hometowns, and many local industries are recovering slowly, and the health of residents is already under direct threat.

Although the Japanese government has promised to take measures to ensure the development of Fukushima's local economy in the future process of discharging the sea, Fukushima University associate professor Lin Xunping believes that the Japanese government should take concrete actions instead of shouting empty slogans, otherwise the road to Fukushima's revitalization will be far away. "The Japanese government claims to be fully responsible for the revitalization of Fukushima during the next 30 years or more, but what is it going to do? For example, in the next 10 or 20 years, the government will have to set specific targets for how to increase fishery production, and for example, if there is a small young population in the region, it will also have a plan for how to increase the population in the future. ”

As Fukushima residents fear, American marine biologist Rick Steiner argues that the Japanese government's claims are unconvincing and that the potential threat of nuclear-contaminated water will have multifaceted long-term consequences for Fukushima residents. "We know that there are a lot of different radionuclides in the [nuclear-contaminated] water that is discharged. The domestic treatment system used by the Japanese side cannot reduce the levels of these radioactive contaminants to undetectable levels. These pollutants are discharged into the ocean along with the nuclear-contaminated water. The marine food chain biomagnifies these substances in levels up to 1,000 times higher than in ambient water, causing cellular damage, genetic damage, affecting the reproductive system, and can lead to cell mutations and even cancer. ”

Although the potential threat posed by the plan to discharge the nuclear-contaminated water into the sea is very clear, the Japanese side still chooses to "put it in one row" despite the opposition of the people of Fukushima and domestic and international public opinion. In this regard, Steiner believes that TEPCO and the Japanese government have taken the most irresponsible approach in order to save money and trouble. "There are safer alternatives, such as building more tanks to keep the treated water for another 10 to 15 years. Every 12 years, the half-life of tritium is halved. At the same time, state-of-the-art technological processing systems can reduce these radionuclides to undetectable levels and remove all tritium. The Japanese government and TEPCO should at least try both technologies. But the Japanese government doesn't want to do that, because it's more costly, so it's cheaper for them to dump the contaminated water directly into the Pacific Ocean for the next 20 to 30 years. But in reality, the Japanese government is shifting the cost to the Pacific neighboring countries. ”

Editor: Wu Jiahong

Source: International Online