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Atomic ruins Fukushima is to dump contaminated water into the sea

2019-09-10T06:40:33.535Z


More than eight years after the reactor disaster in Fukushima, the storage capacity for radiant water is becoming scarce. The operator is now to lead it into the Pacific Ocean.



Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco), the operator of the damaged nuclear power plant in Fukushima, is to route radioactive water directly to the Pacific Ocean. Japanese Environment Minister Yoshiaki Harada announced this at a press conference. After the plant was shut down by an earthquake and tsunami in 2011, Tepco collected more than one million tonnes of contaminated water from cooling lines in some 960 tanks at the destroyed sites.

Because the previously planned storage capacity for the water should be exhausted by 2022, is now an old proposal back to date: "The only way is to empty it into the sea and dilute," said Yoshiaki Harada.

A final government decision on the disposal of water is still pending, before a commissioned expert group to submit a report. How much fluid has to be channeled into the ocean is equally unclear.

The plans may, among other things, anger South Korea. Just last month, the neighboring country ordered a Japanese diplomat to clarify how the government would deal with the water from Fukushima.

Tepco also receives resistance from local fishermen. They fear an image damage for seafood from Fukushima. The danger posed by the contaminated water is controversial. Apart from the radioactive hydrogen isotope tritium, the company is already filtering out many hazardous substances. Tritium is considered comparatively harmless.

For Japan's population, the announcement comes at a bad time: only in July allowed the authorities on at least one stretch of beach bathing - about 25 kilometers from the nuclear ruins Fukushima away.

Source: spiegel

All business articles on 2019-09-10

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