From natural disaster to man-made disaster?

Release of nuclear waste water from Fukushima Nuclear Plant

By A Marine Environmentalist 

Background – Creation of nuclear waste water 

On 11 March 2011, a 9.0 magnitude earthquake struck off the north-eastern coast of Japan, triggering a 15-metre tsunami. Around 18,500 people died or disappeared in the quake and tsunami, and more than 160,000 were forced from their homes. As the facility’s cooling systems failed in the days that followed, three nuclear reactors at the Fukushima plant suffered meltdowns. Molten fuel debris burned through steel containment vessels and into the concrete bases of the reactor buildings. Tonnes of radioactive material were released. The meltdown was the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl in 1986.

Ever since, workers of The Tokyo Electric Power Co., or TEPCO have pumped water through the ruins to prevent the debris from overheating and causing further damage. They have also collected all the contaminated water: It now fills more than 1,000 steel tanks crammed onto the Fukushima campus. On 13 April 2021, Japan announced it will release 1.25 million tons of treated wastewater (enough to fill 500 Olympic-sized swimming pools) contaminated by the wrecked Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant into the Pacific Ocean. Gradual, trial releases could start in two years and might take 40 years to complete.

Impact on ocean and marine ecosystem

The Tokyo Electric Power didn’t admit until recently that the wastewater contains significant amounts of radioactive carbon-14. As C-14 has a half-life of 5,730 years, and is known to bioaccumulate in marine ecosystems and cause cellular and genetic impairment, this is a very serious concern. Fukushima C-14 will be added to the already elevated radioactive C-14 load in the oceans from nuclear weapons tests — ‘bomb carbon’ — last century, now found in organisms even in the deepest part of the ocean, the Marianas Trench. 

The storage tanks at Fukushima now hold seawater that has been used to continue cooling the reactor cores, and this water is contaminated with such radionuclides as cesium-137, carbon-14, tritium (some of which will form the more dangerous ‘organically bound tritium’), strontium-90, cobalt-60, iodine-129, plutonium-239, and more than 50 other hazardous radionuclides. Some of this has reportedly been removed, but some has not — e.g., radioactive tritium, strontium-90, and C-14. 

Although the government official says the Fukushima water will be ‘repurified’ to meet regulatory standards for these nuclides, some environmentalists oppose the idea. Environmental groups like Greenpeace claimed the contaminated water contained ‘dangerous levels of carbon-14’, a radioactive substance that it says has the ‘potential to damage human DNA’. The group accused the government of suggesting the water was ‘treated’ giving the impression it ‘only contains tritium’. 

The water that Japan will dump contains many radionuclides which have the potential to cause damage to human and non-human DNA. Those radionuclides can accumulate in the marine food chain over long periods of time, even more than a thousand years, and could potentially pass back through the food chain to human communities on land. 

The treated nuclear wastewater at Fukushima still contains tritium, carbon-14, cobalt-60, strontium-90 and other radioactive substances that are difficult to completely remove from radioactive water and extremely harmful to the environment and ecology. It is not safe for even washing clothes, let alone drinking. Japan says it will accept the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency and discharge the nuclear wastewater following international standards. But by doing so, it is essentially trying to exploit the loopholes in the existing international laws.

Around 95% of cancers in humans are triggered by exposure to toxic substances present in the environment, food included. If these substances damage genetic material within our cells, that damage must be repaired. Otherwise, the damaged cell either dies or divides. And when the latter happens, the damage – which can cause genetic mutations – is passed on to dividing cells in a process that may lead to diseases like cancer. If that genetic damage happens to egg or sperm cells, it may be passed down from parent to child, triggering new diseases in future generations. 

A number of marine species could have their DNA damaged through extended exposure to radionuclides in seawater. Media reports said on 20 April, the Japanese government announced on Monday that a ban has been placed on black scorpionfish caught off Fukushima waters from entering markets due to the detection of excessive radioactive materials. It was the first ban since restrictions on seafood sales in Fukushima waters were completely lifted last February in Japan.

A report on world fisheries and aquaculture in 2020 showed that Canada, Chile, China, Thailand, US and Vietnam may all be affected by Japan’s nuclear sewage.

Oppositions from within and outside Japan 

Japan’s fishing industry is reported have voiced against the release of nuclear wastewater to the ocean, worried that consumers will refuse to buy produce from the region. The industry was hit extremely hard after the 2011 disaster, with many countries banning the import of sea food caught off Japan’s north-eastern coast. 

The decision has also prompted criticism from Japan’s neighbours. Ahead of the decision, South Korea’s foreign minister expressing ‘serious regret.’ Koo Yoon-cheol, the head of South Korea’s Office for Government Policy Coordination said, “The government expresses strong regret over the Japanese government’s decision to release contaminated water from the Fukushima nuclear plant into the ocean.” However, that attitude of South Korea seems to have changed after the visit of Johan Kerry’s, US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, to Seoul. 

On 15 April, a senior Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs official summoned Japanese Ambassador to China Hideo Tarumi, and made solemn representations on the Japanese government’s decision to dump wastewater from the Fukushima nuclear power plant to the ocean. Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian also urged Japan to ‘act in a responsible manner’ to safeguard international public interests and especially health and safety of the mankind depend on marine ecosystem. China has expressed grave concern to the Japanese side through the diplomatic channel. 

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said Russia will also lodge representations with Japan over the decision and call on Japan to inform the concerned countries of the situation, including future measures to minimise harm to the region and the ecology.

Solution: What the Japanese Government can do

If the Fukushima nuclear accident 10 years ago was a natural disaster caused by the earthquake-induced tsunami, then the discharge of nuclear wastewater into the sea would be a purely man-made calamity.  

By far the best solution is for TEPCO to build more storage tanks and continue holding all contaminated water for another 15 years or so, during which time the radioactive tritium level will decay by half, and simultaneously treat it with best-available technology — such as ion exchange systems and modular ‘detritiation’ systems in the US — to remove all radionuclides possible. Japan and TEPCO considered this long-term storage option, but opted instead for the cheapest choice — simply dumping the wastewater into the Pacific.