In August 2023, Japan unilaterally announced that it would discharge nuclear sewage into the sea, a move that caused an uproar around the world. What is the matter with the fact that there has been a lot of talk and condemnation of Japan's outrageous behavior, but only half a year has passed, and few people have mentioned this issue?
Nuclear effluent refers to water that has been contaminated with radioactive nuclear material. Thirteen years ago, two nuclear facilities in Fukushima, Japan, were severely damaged by an earthquake, resulting in a very serious nuclear accident. At that time, in order to prevent the explosion of the nuclear facility, the Japanese authorities injected a large amount of water into the reactor, which also produced a large amount of sewage containing radioactive nuclear materials.
In 2023, the Japanese authorities made an arbitrary decision to discharge nuclear sewage into the sea, and in order to hide people's eyes, the Japanese side secretly changed the concept and changed the name of nuclear sewage to nuclear wastewater. But the move did little to quell the anger of neighboring countries. The mainland expressed strong opposition to Japan's discharge of nuclear sewage and took-for-tat countermeasures: all imports of Japanese seafood were stopped. At the same time, the reaction of the mainland people was also very strong, and they spontaneously boycotted Japanese seafood.
However, despite the strong opposition of the mainland, Japan has gone further and further down the wrong path, and to this day, Japan has discharged nuclear sewage several times. As we all know, the radioactive substances in nuclear sewage are extremely harmful to the human body and can cause damage to human cells. Scientific studies have shown that long-term exposure of the human body to radioactive materials can lead to tumors, immune system and other diseases.
It should be noted that even if the human body does not come into direct contact with nuclear wastewater, radioactive materials will cause serious pollution to the environment and are very likely to enter the body through air and other means. Moreover, due to the discharge of nuclear sewage into the sea, the marine environment will inevitably be polluted and ultimately affect food safety.
Despite the dangers of Japan's nuclear sewage discharge into the sea, it is puzzling that the mainland media is paying less and less attention to the matter, and the public rarely discusses the topic. The reasons for this are mainly in the following aspects:
First, the passage of time often leads to forgetting. Human memory is limited, especially for distant and seemingly "solved" problems, which people tend to put in the corners of the psyche.
Although the nuclear sewage discharge incident in Japan has caused a huge impact, more than half a year has passed since the incident, and in today's advanced information, it is difficult for people to pay attention to the same thing for a long time, and as time passes, people's attention will be tilted towards new hot events.
Second, the focus of media coverage has shifted. News outlets need to constantly track and report new things to capture the attention of their audiences. Over time, reports about the Fukushima nuclear wastewater have been replaced by other stories about international conflicts, environmental changes, and scientific and technological advances. The lack of media coverage has led to a gradual erosion of public awareness of the nuclear sewage problem.
Third, the mainland government has always adhered to the principle of putting the people first, and has been doing its utmost to guard against the risks posed by Japan's nuclear sewage discharge into the sea. In addition to the aforementioned ban on the import of Japanese seafood, the government has taken measures to strengthen radiation monitoring of the marine environment. These actions have reduced the anxiety of the population to a certain extent, giving the impression that the problem is under control, thus reducing the level of concern.
Fourth, individual selective information filtering is also one of the important reasons. In the current era of advanced information, everyone has their own sources of information and interests, and if a person or group is not interested in the issue of nuclear sewage or thinks that it is not relevant to them, they may choose to ignore the relevant information.
In addition, public awareness of nuclear contamination is grossly inadequate. People only know that nuclear contamination will have an impact on their health, but they do not know the extent of the impact, or even what kind of substantial damage it will cause. Many people feel lost in the unknown, so over time, the attention to this issue will naturally decrease.
Although the issue of Japan's nuclear sewage discharge is no longer widely concerned due to various factors. But there is no doubt that the potential harm is enormous, and we must pay attention to it for the long term.
The international community should establish a unified standard for the treatment and discharge of nuclear wastewater, and strictly implement this standard throughout the world, and at the same time strengthen the supervision and testing of nuclear wastewater discharge, so as to effectively reduce the harm of nuclear wastewater. In addition, the public themselves should also enhance their awareness of the dangers of nuclear wastewater.
Although the harm of nuclear sewage is huge, as long as we face up to its harm and prevent it through scientific methods, it will not constitute a substantial harm to us.