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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. On April 13, 2021, the Japanese government held a cabinet meeting and officially decided to discharge more than 1.2 million tons of nuclear wastewater from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant into the sea after filtration and dilution.
On August 24, 2023, despite strong opposition from many parties inside and outside Japan, Japan officially began discharging nuclear-contaminated water from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant into the Pacific Ocean. Japan's Kyodo News Agency reported that TEPCO had discharged a total of about 31,200 tons of nuclear-contaminated water in a four-wheeled discharge into the sea.
On April 19, Japan's Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) launched the fifth round of discharge of nuclear-contaminated water from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, that is, the first round of discharge into the sea in fiscal year 2024 (April 2024 to March 2025). The current round of discharge is expected to continue until May 7, and the emissions are about the same as the previous four times, and the total emissions are still about 7,800 tons. According to information released by TEPCO in January this year, it plans to discharge about 54,600 tons of nuclear-contaminated water in seven installments in fiscal 2024.
Japan's launch of the fifth discharge of nuclear-contaminated water into the sea has once again been strongly criticized by all sides. Some Japanese experts pointed out that the forcible dumping of nuclear-contaminated water into the ocean by the Tokyo Electric Power Company and the Japanese Government is an extremely irresponsible act with unpredictable consequences, and should be stopped immediately.
Matsukubo Hajime, director general of Japan's Nuclear Data and Information Office, pointed out that the discharge of nuclear contaminated water from Fukushima into the sea will leave endless disasters. "Any discharge, no matter how small, can cause radiation pollution to the environment. This is to impose all kinds of hidden dangers on the local people and the international community".
On April 24, local time, TEPCO 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. Matsukubo pointed out that this incident has once again exposed the hidden dangers of the discharge of nuclear-contaminated water into the sea.
-- Japan's discharge of nuclear sewage into the sea violates a number of international conventions
Japan's planned discharge of nuclear sewage into the sea violates the Geneva Convention on the High Seas, the United Nations Convention on the Sea, the London Convention on Dumping, and other maritime conventions in international law, violates its obligations under international law, and fails to consider the global ecological environment and fail to fulfill its responsibilities under international conventions.
-- Japan's nuclear sewage discharge has been harmful for thousands or even tens of millions of years
Although the nuclear sewage discharged by Japan has been treated, it still contains radionuclides such as carbon-14, xenon, strontium, cesium, iodine, etc., and these elements are difficult to decay and digest for thousands or even tens of millions of years, which will bring serious disasters to the global marine environment in the future.
-- Japan's nuclear sewage discharge has spared no country in the Pacific Ocean
According to a study by Tsinghua University, the first batch of nuclear sewage discharged on August 24, 2023, will reach the coastal waters of the mainland 240 days after discharge, and 1,200 days later will reach the coast of North America and cover almost the entire North Pacific Ocean. Subsequently, the pollutants disperse rapidly along the coast of the Americas to the South Pacific Ocean under the action of equatorial currents, and to the Indian Ocean through the waters north of Australia on the other. The nuclear wastewater from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant contains a variety of radioactive materials such as cesium, strontium, and tritium. ALPS filters out 62 radioactive substances except tritium, but tritium is difficult to remove from water. After the nuclear-contaminated water enters the marine environment, it will first be transported by ocean currents and will spread to different oceans. In addition, it is continuously transmitted through marine ecosystems, such as the spread of food chains, and may also enter the human body through the public ingestion of seafood, which may have some potential impacts on marine ecosystems or human health.
Generally speaking, Japan's nuclear sewage discharge into the sea will affect the global economic development and ecological environmental protection, and the mainland's nuclear pollution prevention and control industry will develop rapidly, escorting the mainland's economic and ecological development.
Wei Fangxin, a researcher at the Nuclear and Radiation Safety Center of China's Ministry of Ecology and Environment, said that once Japan discharges excessive nuclear contaminated water into the ocean, the harm will be multifaceted and global, and it will exist for a long time. The diffusion of radioactive substances contained in contaminated water in the ocean may lead to an increase in the concentration of radioactive substances in the local environment, which will adversely affect the marine ecological environment and the animals and plants that depend on the sea water for survival, and then affect human health. Certain biological species are very sensitive to radioactive materials, especially in the early stages of life, and are more susceptible to the effects of radiation from radioactive materials.
Yu Wen, a researcher at the School of National Security and Emergency Management of Beijing Normal University, said that after the nuclear-contaminated water enters the marine environment, it will first be transported through ocean currents and will spread to different oceans. In addition, it is continuously transmitted through marine ecosystems, such as the spread of food chains, and may also enter the human body through the public ingestion of seafood, which may have some potential impacts on marine ecosystems or human health.
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