Japan to discharge radioactive water from Fukushima into the ocean. Explained
Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant will be pumped out into Pacific ocean, a process that will take decades to complete. A tsunami, caused by the largest earthquake ever to strike Japan, which killed more than 16,000 people, destroyed or damaged roughly 125,000 buildings and left the country facing what its prime minister described as its biggest crisis since World War II. The radioactive water has been building up at the plant since the March 2011 tsunami destroyed its electricity and cooling systems and triggered the world’s worst nuclear disaster since the Chornobyl explosion. The water was distilled after being contaminated from contact with fuel rods at the reactor, destroyed in a 2011 earthquake.
Tanks on the site now hold about 1.3 million tonnes of radioactive water - enough to fill 500 Olympic-sized swimming pools. Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) plans to dump the treated water in the Pacific Ocean. Tepco has been filtering the contaminated water to remove isotopes, leaving only tritium, a radioactive isotope of hydrogen that is hard to separate from water.
Tepco will dilute the water until tritium levels fall below regulatory limits before pumping it into the ocean from the coastal site. Water containing tritium is routinely released from nuclear plants around the world, and regulatory authorities support dealing with the Fukushima water in this way. Tritium is considered to be relatively harmless because it does not emit enough energy to penetrate human skin.
But when ingested it can raise cancer risks, a Scientific American article said in 2014. The water disposal will take decades to complete, with a rolling filtering and dilution process, alongside the planned decommissioning of the plant. Tepco has
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