In the twelfth episode of Diga Ultraman, the Victory team members say on the seashore: "The ocean belongs to all of us, and no matter what, we must not pollute the sea." "
However, the Japanese government met on April 13 and decided to discharge the diluted wastewater into the sea after the Fukushima nuclear wastewater tank reaches its peak in storage in the next two years. As soon as the news came out, the world was in an uproar.
1. The Fukushima nuclear accident
The Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan began in 2011, and on March 11, a magnitude 9.0 earthquake struck the northeast Pacific region of Japan, triggering a tsunami that severely affected the Fukushima nuclear power plant and leaked radioactive materials to the outside world. In this accident, a hydrogen explosion occurred in unit 1 of the Fukushima nuclear power plant, and after 66 years, a nuclear mushroom cloud floated over Japan.
The accident was rated as the highest level of nuclear accident at 7, the same level as the Chernobyl nuclear accident.
After the accident, 18 water purification plants in Tokyo and five other prefectures in Japan detected iodine-131 levels exceeding safe limits. By July 2011, radioactive contamination had been detected in many foods, including spinach, tea, milk, fish and shrimp, and beef, within a 320-kilometer radius. Even as far northeast as China's Heilongjiang province, trace amounts of the artificial radionuclide iodine-131 have been found in the air.
Second, "nuclear" fear
Human fear of "nuclear" stemmed from World War II, and on August 6 and August 9, 1945, the United States dropped atomic bombs code-named "Little Boy" and "Fat Man" on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, prompting Japan to surrender. Since then, the power of nuclear weapons has been known.
But human use of "nuclear" is not only as a weapon, but also for energy, medicine and industry. More interesting is a nuclear test in the Soviet Union in 1965.
In 1965, in order to verify the huge destructive power of the nuclear bomb, the Soviet Union exploded more than 100 meters of deep pits with a nuclear bomb of 140,000 tons of tnt equivalent in the Chagang River beach of the Semipalatinsk oblast. But the experiment was only incidental, and the main purpose of the Soviets was to build reservoirs.
Of course, the reservoir is to be used after it is repaired, but can the reservoir blown up by the nuclear bomb be used?
After the reservoir was repaired, the then director of the Soviet Atomic Energy Utilization Bureau, Slavsky Yefim Pavlovich (1898-1991), jumped directly into the reservoir and swam, causing American experts to shut up.
Ironically, when Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga inspected the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant last September, he asked TEPCO employees: "Is the treated nuclear waste water drinkable?" After getting the other party's reply that "you can drink it when it is diluted", Suga hesitated for a moment or did not dare to drink.
Recently, Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Kato Katsunobu stressed in response to "do not drink nuclear wastewater" that the amount of wastewater radiation to be discharged in Japan is one-seventh of WHO drinking water, and said that even if nuclear wastewater is drunk, the safety of wastewater cannot be scientifically explained.
What exactly is in Japan's nuclear wastewater?
Nuclear wastewater mainly contains strontium-89, strontium-90, cesium-137, iodine-131, carbon-14, plutonium-239 and radioactive tritium, etc. Even if the nuclear sewage is "filtered" treated, it also contains residues of tritium, carbon 14, cobalt 60, strontium 90 and other radioactive materials that are difficult to completely remove.
TEPCO has said that after treatment, most of the radioactive elements in nuclear sewage except tritium can be removed, and the concentration of tritium will be diluted to 1/40 of the Japanese national standard.
To this end, the Japanese government has also launched a "radioactive tritium" mascot, and specially produced a promotional poster and video of the "tritium mascot". However, due to the large number of resistance and complaints, a day later, the Japan Reconstruction Agency was forced to announce the temporary removal of the "tritium mascot", saying that it would modify the design "according to the voice of the people".
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said in its fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant accident report: "These waters are treated to remove radionuclides other than tritium, which cannot be removed." "
What are the effects of nuclear wastewater on the human body?
Let's first talk about "tritium", tritium is one of the isotopes of hydrogen, also known as superheavy hydrogen, half-life of 12.34 years, generally obtained by nuclear reaction, the natural content is very small. Tritium is mainly used to make thermonuclear weapons and is the raw material for the manufacture of hydrogen bombs.
Tritium only emits electrons that move at high speed and does not penetrate the human body, so only inhaling a large amount of tritium will be harmful to the human body. However, it should be noted that tritium-labeled, due to its biological activity, will be used for cell metabolism, causing direct damage, thus seriously endangering the health of inhalers.
In addition to tritium, nuclear wastewater may also contain other radioactive substances that are difficult to completely remove, some of which have little impact on the human body and some of which are very easily absorbed by the human body.
When animals and plants are contaminated with radioactive materials, genetic mutations may occur, and in severe cases, they can be fatal. We may have seen on television that animals and plants contaminated with radioactivity are deformed, which is the manifestation of genetic mutations. In addition, the occurrence of many blood diseases and malignant tumors is related to genetic mutations.
In Fukushima Prefecture, about 380,000 children in the prefecture underwent thyroid tests. As of February 2018, 159 people have been diagnosed with cancer and 34 are suspected of having cancer. Of the 84 Patients in Fukushima Prefecture who were diagnosed with thyroid cancer and underwent surgery, 8 had a recurrence of cancer and underwent surgery again.
5. Opposition and support
On April 4, 2011, Tokyo Electric Power Company discharged 11,500 tons of sewage containing low concentrations of radioactive material into the sea. Yukio Edano, then chief cabinet secretary, said there was "no choice" to do so.
Tokyo Electric Power Company has said that it has filtered these nuclear sewage, removing highly radioactive substances such as strontium and cesium, leaving tritium, which is relatively difficult to remove. But in 2018, TEPCO, under pressure from fishermen to question, admitted that nuclear wastewater contained other radioactive materials in addition to tritium.
On September 16, 2019, at the IAEA General Conference in Vienna, South Korean official Chang Moon Miyu said: "The management of Nuclear Wastewater in Fukushima is no longer a domestic problem in Japan, but a serious international problem affecting the entire global marine environment." "
However, the United States has expressed support for Japan's approach, and State Department spokesman Ned Price said the move was in line with global standards.
The United States and Europe and other countries will also produce a lot of nuclear waste, they also invariably choose to dump it into the ocean, they think this is a simple, cheap way to deal with it, they have done the same thing, of course, there is no way to stand up and blame others.
It is worth noting that just after the United States expressed its support for Japan's nuclear sewage into the sea, the US Food and Drug Administration immediately issued a warning on banning the import of Japanese food.
VI. Conclusion
In 2020, Japan released a movie "based on real events", "50 Dead Soldiers of Fukushima", which tells the story of how front-line workers risked their lives to stick to the scene of the accident after the Fukushima nuclear power plant suffered an earthquake and tsunami.
But no one knows what the names of the 50 people are, and TEPCO refuses to disclose any information about the 50 "heroes" on the grounds of privacy.
At the end of the film, it is mentioned: "The theme of the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games is set at 'revival', and the flame will start from Fukushima. "
However, the Olympic flame that started from Fukushima was extinguished halfway that day...
Regarding the Japanese government's decision to discharge nuclear wastewater from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant into the sea, many parties have expressed doubts and objections. A number of Japanese environmental organizations and civic groups have submitted signatures to the Japanese government opposing the decision, with a total of about 64,000 signatures from 88 countries and regions, including Japan.
In this regard, the Japanese side said that it will work to eliminate the doubts of neighboring countries and promote the safe entry of nuclear wastewater into the sea.