International observation: Japan strongly promotes significant risks in nuclear contaminated water discharge

Source: People's Daily - International Channel Small Shop

Recently, the Japanese government ignored strong opposition from both domestic and international sources and continued to forcefully promote its nuclear contaminated water discharge plan. The long-term impact of Japan's nuclear contaminated water on marine ecology and human health is not yet clear, and the effectiveness and reliability of large-scale nuclear contaminated water treatment technology during the discharge period have not been confirmed. The Japanese government has unilaterally decided to lack regulation of nuclear contaminated water discharge, resulting in significant risks to the ecological environment and human life and health caused by Fukushima nuclear contaminated water discharge, and must be highly vigilant.

Fukushima currently accumulates 1.37 million tons of nuclear contaminated water, with a large total discharge amount. The Japanese government expects the discharge time to be more than 30 years. The nuclear contaminated water to be discharged has come into contact with the melted core and contains over 60 radioactive nuclides, including some with extremely long half-lives. 

After the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, Japan used "multi nuclide removal equipment" to treat the nuclear contaminated water, hoping to reduce the concentration of radioactive substances in the nuclear contaminated water by dilution. However, based on the current level of technology evaluation, there is no effective treatment method for some radioactive nuclides. Therefore, the so-called "treated" Fukushima nuclear contaminated water still contains radioactive substances and cannot remove all radioactive nuclides, such as "tritium".

In addition, currently there are only standards for emission concentration limits and annual emission limits internationally, and there is no standard for the total amount of radioactive nuclide emissions. The potential impact of nuclear radiation on the environment and organisms is still ongoing.

The large-scale nuclear contaminated water treatment technology used in Japan has not been rigorously demonstrated and proven in engineering for its effectiveness and reliability despite its high total emissions and long discharge times. Under the aforementioned technical conditions, Japan unilaterally discharges a large amount of nuclear contaminated water that may still contain radioactive substances into the ocean for a long time, posing significant risks to fisheries, marine ecology, and human health.

The Japanese government unilaterally decided to discharge pollutants, lacking consistency among stakeholders and independent third-party supervision. The disposal of contaminated water from the Fukushima nuclear power plant accident is not just a domestic issue in Japan. The Japanese government, as a contracting party to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, has chosen the "lowest cost" approach for dealing with multiple types of nuclear contaminated water - the "discharge into the ocean" approach, but this approach is not the "best available and implementable means".

The disposal of pollutants in international conventions has always followed the principle of "whoever produces, who governs". Japan's nuclear contaminated water discharge should be fully communicated and demonstrated by international parties, especially through in-depth consultation and consensus with neighboring stakeholders, and subject to third-party supervision throughout the entire cycle.