2023-07-15 03:02:07
Shaima Khalil BBC Tokyo Correspondent
Jul 15, 2023 11:58 AM
Photo credit: Jiro Akiba/BBC
picture explanation,
Japan has decided to purify the water used to cool the melted reactor and discharge it into the sea. Said to be over one million tonnes, this water is enough to fill 500 Olympic-size swimming pools.
At the Tarachine Laboratory, about an hour’s drive from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant on the eastern coast of Japan, Ai Kimura was cutting fish samples wearing a white coat and gloves.
Together with volunteers, Kimura collects fish samples from the waters around the nuclear power plant four times a year. A few months after the 2011 tsunami flooded a nuclear reactor and leaked radioactivity, the institute was founded and has continued to do so ever since.
Kimura is not a scientist. So do the women who run a non-profit research institute named Tarachine, which means “mother” in old Japanese.
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BBC Tokyo Correspondent Shaima Carril visited the Fukushima Contaminated Water Treatment Plant to cover the purification process.
After the tsunami, Kimura proposed to the locals to set up a laboratory. It was to find a way to feed children safe food in a situation where it is difficult to obtain information on the danger of radiation. They learned how to test and record radioactive materials from experts, raised funds, and started studying.
The Tarachine Institute was built because the community was shocked by the fact that the nuclear power plant accident had not even occurred to them. Even after 12 years, residents still do not trust the Japanese government, which says it is safe to discharge purified water from nuclear power plants into the Pacific Ocean.
Earlier this month, Japan decided to purify water used to cool melted reactors and discharge it into the sea. Said to be over one million tonnes, this water is enough to fill 500 Olympic-size swimming pools. Water is stored in about 1,000 tanks after purification, and when the storage capacity is full, it has to be sent somewhere.
In this situation, the Japanese nuclear regulatory authority gave a decision to approve the discharge to ‘Tokyo Electric Power Holdings (Tokyo Electric Power)’, which operates the power plant. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director-General Rafael Grossi said after a two-year review that the plan complies with international standards and that the treated water would have “negligible radioactive effects on people and the environment.”
Neighboring South Korea made a similar assessment, while adhering to an import ban on some Japanese food products. China and Hong Kong have now announced similar bans.
However, residents near Fukushima are not convinced of this situation.
Photo credit: Jiro Akiba/BBC
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Volunteers at the Tarachine Institute collect samples from the waters surrounding the Fukushima nuclear power plant.
“We still don’t know to what extent the contaminated water has been treated,” Kimura said. “This is why we oppose discharge.” She added that many local residents are concerned about the discharge of treated water.
TEPCO is filtering the water to remove more than 60 radioactive substances, but the radioactivity will not be completely removed. The radioactive isotopes of hydrogen and carbon, respectively, tritium and carbon-14 are not easily removed from water.
However, experts say the material emits very low amounts of radiation, so it is not dangerous unless consumed in large quantities. So, before releasing the purified water, it is diluted with seawater to lower the concentration of the remaining substances.
The Japanese government says filtered and tested water will be no different from water released from nuclear power plants around the world.
‘The invisible enemy’
Reminders of Fukushima’s ‘invisible enemy’, what many call radioactivity, have not disappeared. However, there are also efforts to find the facts to confront the horrors lurking in Fukushima.
After the disaster, the government created an off-limits zone in a 30 km radius around the plant and evacuated more than 150,000 residents. A lot has changed, but the entire neighborhood is still empty, and the roofs and windows of long-abandoned houses are covered with grass and moss.
Shop signs have faded and faded, and metal walls and yellow tapes prohibiting people from entering remain on the narrow and desolate streets.
Just by looking at the Tarachine Institute, you can see how much the local community fears the ‘invisible enemy’ contrary to the government’s claims.
Photo credit: Jiro Akiba/BBC
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Ai Kimura is examining samples for radioactivity at the Tarachine Laboratory.
In the Tarachine Institute’s main lab, one volunteer was shredding cabbage for gamma measurements, while another was treating water before testing samples. In the hallways were dirt and dust bags from vacuum cleaners used by neighboring homes.
In the back of the room, food samples were drying before being tested for radiation. On the walls were charts and maps of the nuclear power plant and the surrounding ocean, with colored markings showing the level of radiation and how far the radiation had traveled.
They not only collect samples, but also examine materials sent in by local residents. “Some families even brought acorns to be tested,” said Kimura. She says, “In Japan, toothpicks are used to make tops out of acorns. The government wouldn’t think to check those things. Some moms even asked to have the radiation levels in their local parks checked.”
The lab measures radioactive elements such as strontium-90, tritium, cesium-134 and cesium-137 in all samples and tracks the levels over several years.
“We’re posting all the survey results on our website so that anyone can find them,” Kimura said. “We saw a gradual decline in radioactive material in the food we measured. Discharging the water would ultimately negate the forces of nature that had raised it to this level.”
He sees the controversial stocking plan as a big setback. She said there were still “emotional scars” from the 2011 disaster, and that the decision was reopening them.
Experts say the initiative, now in its second year, is an essential step in the time-consuming and costly cleanup of the power plant. To dismantle the power plant, radioactive debris inside the melted reactor must be removed. To do this, water that has been used to cool the reactor since the 2011 tsunami crippled the plant must first be drained.
In March, Akira Ono, president of TEPCO, told The Associated Press that they were only beginning to fully understand the damage inside the reactor. The most urgent task, he said, is safely releasing water to clean up the area around the plant. Also, since the molten debris needs to be cooled entirely, it needs to make room for more water.
“The real problem isn’t the actual, physical effects of radiation,” said Gary Thomas, a pathology expert who works with Japanese scientists on radiation research and advises the IAEA. “It’s our fear of that.”
He said science was lost among the dissident nuclear activists in the immediate aftermath of the disaster, and to reassure the shocked and horrified public, the government went to great lengths to show that it was taking all necessary precautions.
“Politicians are trying to prove that they care and think of everyone. But really the message people get is, ‘This is going to be really dangerous.'”
But now that fear and lack of trust are proving difficult to shake off.
A bigger problem is that livelihoods are also affected. Fishermen say that releasing the treated water will discredit the catch, lowering its price and hurting already-struggling businesses even more. They said the fishing industry has not fully recovered since the disaster and is still dependent on government subsidies.
Kazuo Yamanaka, an official from TEPCO, pointed to the two tanks inside the nuclear power plant where flounder fish swim.
One is a tank with normal sea water and the other is a tank with water that has the same radioactivity level as the water to be discharged into the sea. He explained the results of monitoring the fish. At first, when the fish is placed in a tank with high levels of radioactivity, the tritium level in the fish rises and then enters a stable state. Then, when they return to the normal seawater tank, the fish discharge them outside the body.
“I am a radiation expert, so I know that tritium has little to no effect on humans and living things. We are all concerned and anxious about the same issue of radiation. This data and images can help reassure people a little bit. I hope it will.”
However, Toru Takahashi, who has been engaged in the fishing industry for the third generation, cannot be relieved. “I’m against (discharge). The negative effects are already showing. I’ve seen people say they won’t buy products from Fukushima.”
For him, the issue of discharge is directly related to himself. He oversees the on-site crew, which prepares the barrels of fish to be unloaded from the boat, washed, auctioned, and sent to market. He said he would never give up on the family business.
Compared to before the 2011 disaster, business has only partially recovered, he said. He said, “Including all the small boats, we still have sales of around 300 million yen a year. Previously, we made about 700 million yen.”
He feared that releasing the water could make things worse, as China and South Korea had already announced import bans.
Photo credit: Jiro Akiba/BBC
picture explanation,
Toru Takahashi (left) said the fishing industry has already taken a hit due to people’s fears
I asked Yamanaka if sound science could allay these concerns. “No matter how fancy the packaging, we can’t control our reputation,” he said. “But we believe our efforts will one day resolve these controversies.”
“I know I’ve lost people’s trust. It will take time to get it back.”
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