From
we read:
Independent scientists are questioning Japan’s plans to dump just over 1 million tons of nuclear wastewater into the Pacific Ocean, following a review of the available evidence.
The panel of multi-disciplinary scientists, hired by the intergovernmental Pacific Islands Forum, has not found conclusive evidence that the discharge would be entirely safe, and one marine biologist fears contamination could affect the food system.
Last year Japan announced that wastewater from the Fukushima-Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, destroyed in March 2011 following the Tohoku Earthquake and tsunami, would be dropped into the Pacific in 2023.
The announcement triggered immediate concern from nations and territories in the Asia-Pacific region and led the Pacific Islands Forum to hire a panel of five independent experts to review the plan.
Previously, it was broadly believed that dropping the wastewater into the ocean would be safe, given it had been treated with “advanced liquid processing system” technology, which removes radioactive materials from contaminated water. [At least that’s what the vendors of the processing system say.]
But panel scientist Robert Richmond, director of the University of Hawaii Kewalo Marine Laboratory, says the panel unanimously believes that critical gaps in information remain.
Previous discussions over the safety of Japan’s plans emphasized the chemistry of the discharge, but not how it could interact with marine life, he said.
“If the ocean were a sterile glass vessel, that would be one thing,” Richmond said. “But it’s not, you know, there’s lots of biology involved.”
University of Hawaii Kewalo Marine Lab Director Robert Richmond is worried about the wastewater discharge on marine life. Cory Lum/Civil Beat/2016
Richmond has been particularly concerned about the potential for tritium – a key compound of concern – being absorbed into the food system because the radioactive isotope can bind to phytoplankton.
Through phytoplankton, Richmond says, the radioactive element could then find its way into the greater food system as the microscopic plants are consumed by mollusks and small fish, which are later consumed by other fish and eventually humans.
“Things like mercury in fish are now of an international concern. Radionuclides will be the same,” Richmond said.
The situation is dynamic too, as climate change affects the temperature of waters and weather patterns change.
“As temperatures go up, many chemicals become more interactive, they become a little bit different in terms of break down,” he said. “So these are all the things we need to consider.”
Japan built a nuclear reactor next to the ocean without the mandatory back-up generators needed for safety. One day, a tidal wave was sure to come. It did. The seafloor earthquake happened. The tidal wave hit the nuclear power plant knocking out the poorly-placed generators. The generators went out of service. Without electricity from any backup generators, the cooling water pumps shut down. Suddenly deprived of cooling, the reactor overheated immediately and the fuel rods melted. The water boiled away and uncovered the nuclear core. When the reactor’s core was exposed, the fuel rods melted together into a radioactive super-hot plastic mass. A huge hydrogen explosion blew up the reactor “containment” building sending melted radioactive fuel rod material flying through the air. The whole area is now contaminated for perhaps 30,000 years. There was almost a china syndrome† event!
You’d think the Japanese would have learned by this time that atomic energy is NOT SAFE. To prove they have NOT learned, they’re building more nuclear power plants!
†
In a china syndrome event, the plastic mass of super-hot, melted nuclear fuel melts through the floor of the “containment,” down through the earth, down and down until it gets to the water table. A volcano-like steam explosion then takes place which propels nuclear fuel bits up through the vertical melt tube, into the air, and spreads highly-radioactive material all around the site. It looks like an atomic bomb event: huge explosion, giant fireball, mushroom cloud, radiation exposure, fallout—everything.
Fukushima was already drizzling highly radioactive, super-hot fuel rod material into the sea 24 hours a day. The radiation from the unstoppable melting fuel rods has already reached California! Does Japan care? They do not.
Now, Japan is going to double-down by dumping millions of tons of radioactive waste water into the sea, too! No more fish or seaweed from Japan—that’s for sure! You can eat it if you want to, but then you’ll glow in the dark. They don’t have to get even for the end of World War II. They can just do this.
Know what I think?
I think this is pure madness.
Yep.That’s what I think.
Fukushima To Dump Radioactive Waste
Into The Sea!
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