Source: Photo.com
According to a report by Japan's Kyodo News Agency on the 24th, Tokyo Electric Power Company announced on the same day that the ongoing discharge of nuclear-contaminated water from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant into the sea was interrupted due to a power outage.
According to the Sankei Shimbun, this is the first time that the discharge of nuclear-contaminated water into the sea has been interrupted due to an emergency, and the cause of the power outage is still under investigation, and it is not clear when the discharge will be restarted.
According to reports, this is the fifth round of discharge of nuclear-contaminated water from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant by Japan's Tokyo Electric Power Company, which is expected to continue until May 7, with the discharge being roughly the same as the previous four times, and the total discharge is still about 7,800 tons.
Previously, it was reported that TEPCO had discharged a total of about 31,200 tons of nuclear-contaminated water in the first four rounds of discharge.
The Fukushima nuclear power plant leak in Japan is a magnitude 7 nuclear accident
In January 1967, the construction of Japan's Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant began, consisting of Fukushima 1 Station and Fukushima 2 Station, with a total of 10 units (6 units at the first station and 4 units at the second station), all of which are boiling water reactors. The Fukushima 1 station was put into commercial operation in March 1970, and the Fukushima 2 station was put into commercial operation by 1987.
On March 11, 2011, a magnitude 9 earthquake struck the waters east of Japan and triggered a tsunami that caused a leak at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. The cooling water in the reactors, together with the daily influx of rainwater and groundwater, has led to the increasing amount of radioactive wastewater being produced at the Fukushima nuclear power plant.
Japan's Fukushima nuclear power plant leakage is defined as a magnitude 7 nuclear accident, and so far, the international definition of a magnitude 7 nuclear accident has been two times, one is the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, and the other is the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant on the cusp.
Current status of nuclear wastewater treatment in Japan
At the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, multi-nuclide removal equipment is used to purify radioactive materials contained in the contaminated water generated by the accident, and to store them in storage tanks such as ALPS treatment water and strontium-treated water. In addition, there are a total of 1,073 storage tanks in the plant area. Among them, there are 1,033 storage tanks for ALPS treated water, 27 storage tanks for strontium-treated water, 12 seawater desalination plant (RO) treatment tanks, and 1 concentrated brine.
As of September 21, 2023, the storage capacity of ALPS treated water and strontium treated water in the tank was 1339135 cubic meters.
Japan's plan to discharge nuclear sewage into the sea
Japan's Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) will gradually release up to 22 trillion becquerels of tritium per year from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant over the next 20 or 30 years. After ALPS treatment and further dilution, TEPCO's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant will not discharge more than 1,500 becquerels per liter of water. After a review by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), TEPCO's assessment indicated that the exposure to the treated water at the nuclear power plant was less than 0.00003 millisieverts per year. The average radiation dose received by the average person living in Japan is 2.1 millisieverts per year.
Although Japan's nuclear sewage has been treated, its discharge still contains radionuclides such as carbon-14, xenon, strontium, cesium, iodine, etc., and the carbon-14 contained in the sewage has been a safety hazard for thousands of years. According to authoritative research, after Japan's nuclear sewage is discharged into the sea, its radioactive materials will spread to most of the Pacific Ocean within 57 days, and to the world's seas within 10 years, seriously endangering the marine and marine life growth environment.
Experts say that Japan's nuclear sewage discharge may have "three causes" - carcinogenic, teratogenic, and mutagenic. "If it is in order, it should be mutagenic and the consequences can be carcinogenic and teratogenic, of which teratogenicity is an important effect. ”
Zhang Yanling, a professor at the Law School of Dalian Maritime University and president of the Huang Bohai Research Institute, said that Japan should dispose of the nuclear-contaminated water in a responsible manner, respond to the concerns of the international community in a serious and serious manner, and prevent irreversible consequences caused by the discharge into the sea.
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