disposal
Start construction work to dump Fukushima cooling water
Tanks with contaminated water stand at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in the city of Okuma, Fukushima Prefecture. photo
© Uncredited/Kyodo News via AP/dpa
In 2011, the Fukushima disaster struck. The irradiated cooling water from back then is still stored. But it should be filtered into the sea. The work for this is now starting.
The operator of the Fukushima nuclear ruins has started building facilities for dumping huge amounts of radioactive cooling water into the sea. The contaminated water is to be filtered, diluted and fed into the Pacific Ocean via a tunnel about one kilometer long. As reported by local media, citing the operating company Tepco, the construction work should be completed in the spring by summer of next year at the latest.
Even more than eleven years after the disaster on March 11, 2011 as a result of a seaquake and a tsunami, the destroyed reactors have to be cooled with water that has so far been filtered and stored in hundreds of huge tanks. However, according to Tepco, space for the tanks will run out this fall. The government had decided that more than 1.25 million cubic meters of water would be dumped into the Pacific.
Environmentalists and neighboring countries such as China and South Korea are outraged by the project. The cooling water is treated, but the ALPS filter system cannot filter out the tritium isotope. Japan argues that tritium is harmless to humans in small amounts.
The governor of Fukushima Prefecture, Masao Uchibori, gave his approval shortly before construction began. However, he and local mayors urged the central government to take measures to prevent damage to the reputation of seafood the day before construction began. The plan did not find sufficient understanding among the population.