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Original title: Is it really safe for Japan to dump millions of tons of nuclear wastewater with “very little damage” into the Pacific Ocean? Source: bad review
Yesterday, Shi Chao took one and finished reading the news about clenched fists. . . Everyone should know that the accident at the Fukushima nuclear power plant occurred in March 2011. The level of the accident was the seventh most serious, the same level as that of Chernobyl.Recently, the Japanese media reported that the Japanese government has basically decided to discharge nuclear wastewater from the Fukushima nuclear power plant into the sea, and it will be completed as soon as this month.
After reading this news, Shi Chao had a lot of confusion.
The most direct, is it really reliable to discharge into the ocean? Will it cause harm to humans?
Is it really like what Japan said, is it their only way to dump nuclear wastewater into the ocean and have all of humanity pay for it?
Also, where does this nuclear wastewater come from and continue to flow?
In 2019, about 1.12 million tons of nuclear wastewater were stored, increasing from 50,000 to 80,000 tons per year ↓ ↓
Shi Chao happened to have a friend who was studying nuclear physics. She and her classmates worked at nuclear power plants. I had a chat with them and should be able to help everyone understand this.
Let’s start with the source of all nuclear wastewater.
After the accident at the Fukushima nuclear power plant, the core still has enormous decomposition heat, requiring injection of water to cool it, which is the first source of nuclear wastewater: cooling water.
But everyone should be able to think that it can be recycled without affecting the refrigeration if it is contaminated!
In July 2011, the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant completed the circulating cooling of nuclear wastewater ▼
Also, in recent years, nuclear reactors should have cooled down and, in theory, cooling water is no longer needed. So where is this growing amount of nuclear wastewater coming from?
This is mainly due to the fact that the Fukushima nuclear power plant is close to the sea and the ground is low, and groundwater continues to accumulate and flow into the pile. With this bubble, nuclear wastewater increased.
Back then, the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant stated in its anti-pollution countermeasures that around 100-200 tons of such “groundwater” would flow into the reactor building involved in the accident every day.
Data published in 2016 ▼
Originally, they stored the water in a tank, but as it accumulated more and more, Fukushima could no longer store it and was ready to be discharged into the sea.
Some people may be curious that there is so much water in the ocean. This nuclear wastewater is negligible to the ocean. What does it matter if it’s diluted?
You think the concentration has been lowered, but the evolution of the radiotoxicity of nuclear waste is too long, and it will be absorbed and enriched by marine life, eventually converging on the human body at the top of the food chain.
Therefore, the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant also specifically stated that its discharge to the ocean is wastewater that has been treated with a harmless treatment, which has basically no effect. .
In this process, they use a multiple nuclide removal device (ALPS), which is based on adsorption. It is said that the concentration of 62 non-tritium nuclides can be reduced below the emission limit.
If, as they said, the radioactive content of Fukushima’s nuclear wastewater is really low after treatment, then it can be considered that there is no impact.
Although there is still tritium, the tritium content should be acceptable if diluted with the whole sea (but dilution is a process, and concentration in some places …).
But the question is, who can be sure to what extent they have addressed it?
In August this year, an article was published in the journal Science, stating that based on data provided by Tokyo Electric Power in late 2019, Fukushima’s nuclear wastewater still contains many radioactive components and requires a second treatment.
Then on the 15th of this month, the Fukushima nuclear power plant was exhausted and said it had carried out secondary treatment of Fukushima nuclear wastewater and released the data.
According to the report, some nuclides have fallen below the limit.
Data extract ▼
But from a time-lapse perspective, this friend is simply a magical child. .
It took 4 to 5 years to treat this nuclear wastewater, and a second treatment was still considered to be necessary. When the jars were almost out of place, fast forward 1 year ~
Shi Chao didn’t take a closer look at this data, but it did make a little difference. Once nuclear wastewater is discharged into the sea, the impact is shared by all humanity and it is an irreversible operation, the detection of data must be more rigorous, such as the participation of other countries and institutions in the trial.
Not a difficult case, mainly due to TEPCO’s history of hiding accidents and altering reports ↓ ↓
Not to mention that since the accident at the Fukushima nuclear power plant, TEPCO (the company affiliated with the Fukushima nuclear power plant) has been operating.
In the event of an accident, Tepco was not willing to inject seawater for emergency cooling, because the nuclear reactor would be destroyed forever, and they imagined that it could be used in the future. . .
After the explosion at the Unit 1 plant, Tepco chose to hide it, which eventually caused the accident to spread.
In short, if you make a mistake, keep it a secret and bow down if something happens.
Such a company with frequent crush operations, if it’s you, would you be more careful with it?
Faced with an operation so irreversible that it has a great impact on humans, more rigorous data testing must be performed and a whole set of plans must be announced to the public that includes what to do if something goes wrong.
After all, the Fukushima nuclear power plant accident itself is the best embodiment of the danger that lurks in the unknown.
I hope that Japan can live up to the “artisan spirit”, the “civilized and rigorous” spirit and “trouble-free for others” that they are proud of when faced with the huge problem of more than 1 million tons.
