Radioactive Water Japan Plans To Release From Fukushima Into The Ocean, Can Damage Human DNA

Nearly a decade after the nuclear disaster at the Fukushima Nuclear power plant in Japan, the country has courted controversy over its plans to release the radioactive cooling water into the ocean.

According to reports, Japan plans to release 1 million tons of radioactive water which has been collected in storage tanks.

Reuters

As per the proposal, Japan will start releasing over 1.2 million liters of contaminated water into the ocean by 2022 when the storage capacity will be full and will continue up to around 2050.

This has however not gone down well with Japan's neighbours and environmentalists who say the move will have catastrophic consequences.

AFP

Local fishermen in Fukushima publicly announced their opposition, saying the plan will undo years of work rebuilding their industry's reputation, since the plant was wrecked by a huge tsunami in March 2011.

According to Greenpeace, the water that contains radioactive carbon has the potential to damage human DNA.

The environmental group claims that the 1.23 million metric tonnes of water stored at the plant contains "dangerous" levels of the radioactive isotope carbon-14 and other "hazardous" radionuclides, which it says will have "serious long-term consequences for communities and the environment" if the water is released into the Pacific Ocean.

Reuters

"There has been sustained opposition to the discharge of contaminated water from citizens in Fukushima, commercial bodies such as Japan's national federation of fisheries cooperatives, JF Zengyoren, the majority of municipal assemblies in Fukushima Prefecture, and wider Japanese society. There has also been opposition from Japan¡¯s nearest geographical neighbours, especially the Republic of Korea. However, the Japanese government continues to ignore the views of all who seek to protect the world¡¯s oceans," it said.

"The primary source of radioactivity remains the melted nuclear fuel or corium located at the three Fukushima Daiichi reactors. Fresh groundwater entering the site continues to become contaminated as a result. It¡¯s estimated that this will lead to an additional 500,000 tons, perhaps as much as one million tons, of contaminated water accumulating by 2030," Greenpeace in its investigative report said.

Reuters

"If the contaminated water is discharged to the Pacific Ocean, all of the carbon 14 will be released to the environment. With a half-life of 5,730 years, carbon-14 is a major contributor to global human collective dose; once introduced into the environment carbon-14 will be delivered to local, regional and global populations for many generations," the report stated.

Reuters

The Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Fukushima went into meltdown and released radioactive material in the aftermath of a tsunami, in one of the biggest of its kind accidents in the world.