Current:Home > StocksPlan to release Fukushima nuclear plant water into sea faces local opposition: "The sea is not a garbage dump" -FundGuru
Plan to release Fukushima nuclear plant water into sea faces local opposition: "The sea is not a garbage dump"
View
Date:2025-04-14 07:50:03
Japan's government is asking for international backup as it prepares to release thousands of gallons of water from the Fukushima nuclear power plant into the sea. The plan has alarmed the public and outraged fishermen — even as the international energy agency looks inclined to back it.
The controversy comes 11 years after a tsunami swept ashore in 2011 and caused one of the worst nuclear accidents in history — a meltdown in three of the four reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant 200 miles north of Tokyo.
The plant sits in what was a lush coastal part of Japan, famous for its seafood and delicious fruit. Today, there's still no-go area around the power station where fields lie fallow and homes sit abandoned.
Inside a high security fence studded with warning signs, engineers are still working to remove radioactive fuel rods that melted inside the reactors. They'll be at it for decades.
Another problem is piling up in hundreds of metal tanks on the site: they contain more than a million tons of contaminated water.
The plant operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, or TEPCO, has been collecting radioactive water from rain and runoff over the years. The water has been purified by sophisticated chemical filtering systems that remove harmful radioactive elements like cesium and strontium.
Now, TEPCO says, the time has come to stop adding to the storage problem and begin piping the water into the sea.
The trouble is, it's still contaminated with one radioactive element: tritium.
Tritium occurs in nature, and it also occurs in wastewater that many nuclear power plants around the world release into the ocean. It has a half-life of 12.5 years, which means it turns into completely non-radioactive helium over time. But such is the lack of trust between TEPCO and the Japanese public that the water-release plan has encountered stiff opposition.
"Piping water into the sea is an outrage," said Haruo Ono, who has been fishing the ocean off the coast of Fukushima all his life.
"The sea is not a garbage dump," he said. "The company says it's safe, but the consequences could catch up with us 50 years down the road."
There will be no consequences, says TEPCO. The water will meet all international standards for discharge, and the discharge of the water into the sea — through a long pipe — will only start when all stakeholders have signed off.
Facility manager Kazuo Yamanaka said that even when the pipes and pumps are complete, "that doesn't mean we're allowed to start getting rid of the water."
"The local community must sign off first, so we've been talking constantly with the local fishermen and residents of the communities," he said.
To prove the discharged water will not harm fish, TEPCO has been raising flounder inside the nuclear plant. They flourish in tanks filled with tritium-laced water. Then, once they're transferred to normal sea water, lab tests show they flush the tritium from their systems within days.
The International Atomic Energy Agency broadly backs TEPCO's water release plan, which is slated to go ahead later this year.
But Haruo Ono, the fisherman, said the science is not the issue.
"People don't understand it," he said. "Mothers won't choose Fukushima fish knowing it's been swimming in radioactive water. Even if the experts say it's safe."
Under current rules, he can only take his fishing vessels out to sea a day or two a week, when he gets the OK from the government.
"This is the end of my livelihood," he said.
Critics argue that Japan, prone to massive earthquakes and devastating tsunamis, should never have developed nuclear power. But with no oil or gas of its own, and anxious to reduce its reliance on coal, Japan built 17 nuclear plants, which provided efficient reliable energy — until disaster struck and Japan was forced to reckon with the true cost of nuclear power gone wrong.
The Fukushima nuclear plant won't be safely decommissioned for years to come. So far taxpayers have paid $90 billion to clean it up.
- In:
- Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Disaster
Elizabeth Palmer has been a CBS News correspondent since August 2000. She has been based in London since late 2003, after having been based in Moscow (2000-03). Palmer reports primarily for the "CBS Evening News."
veryGood! (32656)
Related
- Off the Grid: Sally breaks down USA TODAY's daily crossword puzzle, Triathlon
- Maine leaders seek national monument for home of Frances Perkins, 1st woman Cabinet member
- Ohio woman claims she saw a Virgin Mary statue miracle, local reverend skeptical
- Rain, wind from Tropical Storm Debby wipes out day 1 of Wyndham Championship
- A South Texas lawmaker’s 15
- St. Vincent channels something primal playing live music: ‘It’s kind of an exorcism for me’
- Wisconsin man convicted in wrong-way drunken driving crash that killed 4 siblings
- Shabby, leaky courthouse? Mississippi prosecutor pays for grand juries to meet in hotel instead
- North Carolina justices rule for restaurants in COVID
- Average rate on a 30-year mortgage falls to 6.47%, lowest level in more than a year
Ranking
- Skins Game to make return to Thanksgiving week with a modern look
- An industrial Alaska community near the Arctic Ocean hits an unusually hot 89 degrees this week
- University of Georgia panel upholds sanctions for 6 students over Israel-Hamas war protest
- Who is Nick Mead? Rower makes history as Team USA flag bearer at closing ceremony with Katie Ledecky
- DeepSeek: Did a little known Chinese startup cause a 'Sputnik moment' for AI?
- Debby bringing heavy rain, flooding and possible tornadoes northeast into the weekend
- Hearing in Karen Read case expected to focus on jury deliberations
- 15 states sue to block Biden’s effort to help migrants in US illegally get health coverage
Recommendation
'No Good Deed': Who's the killer in the Netflix comedy? And will there be a Season 2?
15-year-old Virginia high school football player dies after collapsing during practice
Nina Dobrev Details Struggle With Depression After Bike Accident
Maui remembers the 102 lost in the Lahaina wildfire with a paddle out 1 year after devastating blaze
Trump's 'stop
2024 Olympics: Runner Noah Lyles Says This Will Be the End of His Competing After COVID Diagnosis
The Beverly Hills Hotel x Stoney Clover Lane Collab Is Here—Shop Pink Travel Finds & Banana Leaf Bags
Aaron Rodgers Shares Where He Stands With His Family Amid Yearslong Estrangement