When I talk about the prospects for nuclear power, I often mention the fact that a big vulnerability is the public fear of a major nuclear accident. There have only been a few major accidents, but they have a chilling effect on public acceptance, private investment and government support for nuclear power.
In March, 2011, there was an underwater earthquake that hit to the northeast of the Japanese archipelago. The tsunami that was generated by the quake hit the nuclear power station on the Japanese coast at Fukushima. Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), the company that owned and operated the six nuclear reactors at Fukushima, had failed to move their emergency diesel generators out of a basement and the tsunami destroyed them. Without the power needed to cooling the spent nuclear fuel stored in cooling pools, three of the reactors overheated and melted down. One of them exploded.
Ground water flowing under the plant became contaminated and was captured and stored. Overtime, the amount of water continued to accumulate and will soon overwhelm the ability of the Japanese government to contain it.
It is estimated that there are currently one and a quarter metric tons of water stored at the plant. The water contains high levels of radioactive carbon in the form of the carbon-14 isotope. It also contains high levels of tritium, the radioactive isotope of hydrogen.
The Japanese government has been under increasing pressure to make a decision about the ultimate disposition of all the contaminated water at Fukushima. The Japanese environmental minister has repeatedly said that the only possible solution to the problem of the contaminated water was to release into the Pacific Ocean.
There was a debate last Friday and the government was supposed to decide the fate of the water. However, because of the strong opposition of several Japanese environmental groups, a final decision was delayed. Many other environmental groups opposed the release of the water but officials of the government say that it is the only possible way to deal with the water.
Environmental activists such as Greenpeace have warned that the release of that stored water could pose a serious threat to marine life in the Pacific Ocean and to human DNA. The carbon-14 will increase to the collective human radiation dose around the shores of the Pacific Ocean.
Shaun Burnie is the Greenpeace author of a report on the stored water. He said, “The carbon-14 and tritium, together with other radionuclides in the water will remain hazardous for thousands of years with the potential to cause genetic damage. It's one more reason why these plans have to be abandoned.”
Hiroshi Kajiyama is the Industry Minister of Japan. He said, "In order to avoid the delay in decommission process of Fukushima Daiichi, we need to make a decision on how to deal with the processed water that increases every day.”
Ryounosuke Takanori is a spokesman for TEPCO. He told a reporter that the concentration of carbon-14 contained in the stored water is between two and two hundred becquerels per quart. He added that, "even if the water is continuously drunk by 2 liters every day, the annual exposure is about 0.001 to 0.11 millisieverts, which is not a level that affects health."
It has been ten years since the nuclear disaster that destroyed the Fukushima power plant. The consequences of that accident still pose a serious threat and, if the contaminated water is released into the Pacific Ocean, the world may be impacted aftermath of Fukushima for centuries.