Japan will release 1320 million is soon going to release treated radioactive water from its defunct nuclear plant into the Pacific Ocean. For this, it has also got approval from the Nuclear Watchdog of the UN. Rafael Grossi, chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), arrived in Japan on Tuesday.
Here he met Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and did a safety review. The IAEA said that Japan’s plan to release radioactive water is correct according to safety standards. However, people living in the coastal area in Japan and many countries including China are opposing it.
Fukushima nuclear plant’s cooling system was stalled by the 2011 tsunami
Japan’s fishing industry and civil society groups have also raised concerns about the release of 1320 million liters of water into the Pacific Ocean. Actually, due to the tsunami in March 2011, the cooling and electricity system of the nuclear plant of Fukushima came to a standstill. Due to the heat, the cores of the three reactors present there had melted, due to which a large amount of radiation was spread.
Permit can be obtained in 1 week to release water
According to Al Jazeera, the plan to release water from the nuclear plant was announced in 2021. It was said then that this work would start in the next 2 years. Japan’s regulatory body had completed its inspection on June 30 itself. After the UN investigation, TEPCO, the company taking care of the plant, can get a permit to release water within a week.
After this they can start releasing water anytime. However, no date has been announced for this. It will take several decades to discharge the water into the ocean. It will be released through a pipe of 1 kilometer.
Nuclear plant water is stored in 1000 tanks
Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO), the company that maintains this nuclear plant, told that after treating the water present in the plant, it has been stored in one thousand tanks. The quantity of this water can be estimated from the fact that it is enough to fill 500 Olympic sized swimming pools. It is also necessary to remove this water from there so that the nuclear plant can be destroyed.
radioactive material tritium is still present in water
According to Japan’s Foreign Ministry, the water has been cleaned before being released into the ocean. However, according to several reports, it still contains particles of tritium. Tritium is a radioactive material, which is very difficult to separate from water. In this case, it does not cause much harm when it comes in contact, but if it goes in a large amount in someone’s body, then it can cause diseases like cancer.
Nuclear plant water and waste material in Japan has been a problem for many years. South Korea, China and Australia have protested against the release of water into the Pacific Ocean. At the same time, Japan has been continuously assuring that it will discharge the water only after reducing the amount of tritium on the basis of international standards.
