https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/24/asia/japan-fukushima-waste-ocean-intl-scli/index.html
I don’t understand why the Japanese government has insisted that the filtered radioactive water is safe and yet decided to dump it into the ocean. They plan to continue this practice for over 30 years, discharging radioactive water into the ocean every second. If it’s genuinely safe, they could use it for agricultural and industrial purposes within their own country. Even Japanese fishermen oppose this decision, so the government has constructed a tunnel to discharge it one kilometer away from their coastline, as if the ocean remains completely stagnant. Other political leaders have claimed that it’s safe to the point where they could all drink it, but strangely, no one has ever actually done so. If it’s genuinely safe, why not use it and integrate it into their domestic water supply? I’ve heard many people argue that the ocean is already contaminated to some extent, so why further pollute it? After all, no one owns the ocean. I’ve never liked it when political leaders act as if they can do whatever they believe is best, often for economic reasons. Just as no particular person is solely responsible for climate change, no one will be held accountable for the ramifications of this decision. This sets a very concerning precedent for the future. Radioactive leaks? Just dispose of them into the ocean. This is a deeply disappointing decision by Japan.
https://www.reddit.com/r/japan/comments/15xpbxs/this_is_a_deeply_disappointing_decision_by_japan/
10 comments
I dont know whether it is a good decision or nor, but I will just comment on the last part, about using the water for its own agricultural needs.
There is something in life called dilution effect. You wouldn’t drink your own piss, but drinking sea water when you swim even though everybody seconds millions of human and animals piss in it isn’t really an issue
There’s a difference between dumping water in the ocean and drinking it. We dump sewage into the ocean for example, rather than drinking it. So the strawman argument kind of undermines what might otherwise be a good point. The water still contains tritium – the science is far from settled on the danger of that, so dumping it in the ocean is reckless. At the same time, there is a strong argument that it is safe.
I may be ignorant with this one, but regarding the other comments… Are you really comparing piss/sewer water to radioactive water? Do you think it has the same effect on ecosystems and living organisms? I’d rather drink piss or sewer water than radioactive water.
Edit: I’m a bit lost, so I guess that yes, I’m just ignorant on the subject.
Wow were still talking about this?
The water has about 1,500Bp per liter, diluted from hundreds of thousands of Bp, it will produce 3.9 microsieverts per year, being exposed to 1,000 microsieverts has a 1 in 25,000 chance of you dying early from cancer, it’s much lower than the 2,400 microsieverts we naturally get per year.
So it’ll be safe considering the size of the dumping site.
PS. a [link](https://remm.hhs.gov/radmeasurement.htm) explaining Bp, rem, sievert, ect.
The contaminated waste water to be dumped are highly radio active and toxic.
To be fair, the water is supposed to go through several decontaminating process before finally it is dumped to the worlds ocean.
The Fukushima nuclear disaster was preventable if TEPCO wasn’t so incompetent and fraud driven.
The same TEPCO is in charge of aforementioned cleaning before release. Over the years, there have been number of accidents and mistakes at the Fukushima site.
It’s sea water, so it cannot be drunk and cannot be used for agriculture. The only way to dispose of it is into the sea.
Safe has different definitions. It is safe to handle silver it is not safe to ingest silver it causes argyria which makes your skin purplish blue. Tritium is not safe to ingest so of course no one is drinking the water. You can’t use it in agriculture either. I suppose if Japan wants to start a Thermonuclear weapons program they have the materials for that. Honestly, this dilution plan is probably one of the safer plans when it comes to it.
It is far less radiation than is being dumped in neighboring countries every year. But let’s not let facts get in our way.
Only one thing makes that water actually dangerous.
Storing it all in one place.