Japan officially discharged the contaminated water into the sea, and 240 days later, the contaminated water will spread to China

Emissions will last up to 30 years

On August 22, local time, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced that if meteorological and hydrological conditions allow, it will begin to release nuclear contaminated water to the sea to deal with the explosion of the Fukushima first reactor on the 24th. According to Japan's Jiji News Agency reported on the 22nd, the secretary-general of the Liberal Democratic Party Motegi Toshimitsu said at a press conference that in order to promote the rehabilitation and restoration of Fukushima, it is necessary to discharge scientifically based purified water to the sea, and to take extra measures to prevent possible adverse public opinion influence, and hope that future work can be smoothly carried out.

Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco) plans to release the first batch of 7,800 tons of contaminated water from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in 17 days, starting at 1 p.m. Monday, Kyodo News reported. The entire emission process is expected to take 30 years. In 2023, it is expected to emit about 31,200 tons, and the total amount of tritium is 5 trillion becquerels, which is about 20% of the upper limit of Tepco's annual planned emissions (22 trillion becquerels).

According to Tepco, the radioactive water discharged in Japan is treated with ALPS technology, which ensures that the concentration of radioactive substances, except tritium, is well below the relevant safety limits. Tritium is a radioactive isotope of hydrogen. Although the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said that the energy of these rays is relatively low, the risk of external exposure is limited, and it is currently believed that tritium does not accumulate in the body and will be excreted. However, understanding the long-term health effects of tritium requires scientific research and monitoring. In addition, Fukushima nuclear contaminated water contains more than 60 kinds of radionuclides, in addition to tritium, there are carbon-14, iodine-129, many of which radionuclides have not yet been effective treatment technology, and Japan has been making "the problem is only tritium element" misleading. International environmental organizations have found that ALPS cannot remove radioactive tritium and carbon-14, nor can it completely remove other radioactive isotopes, such as strontium-90, iodine-129 and cobalt-60.

In addition, the impact of nuclear-contaminated water is global and is of greatest concern. The German Marine scientific research institute pointed out that the Fukushima coast has the strongest ocean currents in the world, and within 57 days from the date of discharge, radioactive materials will spread to most of the Pacific Ocean, three years later the United States and Canada will be affected by nuclear pollution at the other end of the Pacific Ocean, and 10 years later, the global sea. According to a report by a research team at Tsinghua University, macro simulation results show that the contaminated water will reach the coastal waters of China 240 days after the discharge, and it will reach the coast of North America and cover almost the entire North Pacific Ocean in 1,200 days. As our Ministry of Foreign Affairs has said, 24 August is likely to be a disaster day for the Marine environment.

On the 24th, the relevant official of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment said: "Our ministry attaches great importance to the issue of the discharge of contaminated water from Japan's Fukushima nuclear power plant. In 2021 and 2022, China has organized and carried out Marine radiation environment monitoring in the sea areas under its jurisdiction, and found out the background situation of the current Marine radiation environment in the relevant sea areas. The monitoring results show that the concentration of artificial radionuclide activity in seawater and Marine organisms in the waters under our jurisdiction is not abnormal, and is generally within the range of fluctuations over the years."

"At present, in accordance with the idea of monitoring key areas, covering jurisdictional sea areas, and mastering key channels, the Ministry is organizing the Marine radiation environment monitoring of China's jurisdictional sea areas in 2023." In the future, our ministry will continue to strengthen the relevant monitoring work, and promptly track and judge the possible impact of the Fukushima nuclear contaminated water on our Marine radiation environment, and earnestly safeguard our national interests and people's health."

All parties oppose

Prior to this, both Japan and the international community were strongly opposed to this decision, and the decision has not been shaken.

Katsuke Okada, secretary general of the Constitutional Democratic Party, criticized the government: "It should have taken measures earlier to prevent the spread of risk rumors." Nobuyuki Baba, a representative of the Japan Restoration Council, said in an interview with the media, "The concerns of the Tohoku region, including Fukushima, have not been completely eliminated." He said, The government should be fully prepared for the possibility of unexpected events after the release of the water. Kazuo Shiwai, chairman of the Japanese Communist Party, told reporters in the Diet, We will never tolerate such an act of giving up our promise not to take any action without the understanding of relevant people such as the fishing industry.