Opinion | Fukushima waste water release: how mainland China and Hong Kong got it wrong
- The seafood bans are based on unscientific fear over the safety of the treated water
- Of real concern are two issues missing in the hysteria: low public acceptance of nuclear technology, and the impact of the nuclear industry’s long-term use of the environment to dispose of radioactive waste
These responses are misguided as the discharge of contaminated water from Fukushima does not represent a danger for people in mainland China and Hong Kong. Furthermore, they obfuscate more essential discussions that society should have on mistrust related to nuclear technology and on the long-term radiological pollution of the environment.
Following the 2011 nuclear accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, Japan has been using water to cool the radioactive reactor cores that had melted. Through contact with these cores, the cooling water has been contaminated with various radioactive elements. About 1.3 million tonnes of this contaminated water is now stored in some 1,000 tanks on site.
Storing this radioactive water on site is risky as it could contaminate the surrounding environment if an earthquake were to damage these tanks. Japanese authorities have decided to discharge the contaminated water into the ocean to prevent this risk and to free up storage space for newly generated contaminated water.