Tepco lapse a wake-up call for Japan's nuclear security protocols, expert says

As reported by The Japan Times.

Additional media coverage re: Japan government's decision to dump highly radioactively contaminated Fukushima Daiichi wastewater into Pacific Ocean

Thank you to the Nevada State Agency for Nuclear Project's "What's News?" page for these postings:

Updated - Sunday, April 18, 2021

• Common Dreams - Biden Must Urge Japan to Abandon Dangerous Fukushima Wastewater Plan - By Rick Steiner
• Independent Australia - Japan condemned over proposed nuclear wastewater dump

Updated - Saturday, April 17, 2021

• The Hill - The danger of Japan dumping Fukushima wastewater into the ocean - By Rick Steiner
• Focus Taiwan - AEC plans warning system on Fukushima radioactive water release - By Su Szu-Yun and Frances Huang

Updated - Friday, April 17, 2021

• The Zimbabwe Independent - Japan approves releasing nuclear waste into ocean -
• AA - Japan's nuclear waste plan 'unpardonable': North Korea - Riyaz Ul Khaliq

Updated - Thursday, April 16, 2021

• The Japan Times - IAEA to oversee release of contaminated water from Fukushima nuclear plant

Updated - Wednesday, April 14, 2021

• Reuters - South Korea aims to fight Japan's Fukushima decision at world tribunal - By Hyonhee Shin
• The Smithsonian Magazine - Japan Will Release Fukushima Nuclear Plant Wastewater Into Ocean - By Theresa Machemer
• The Shine - China urges Japan to reconsider decision on nuclear waste disposal: FM spokesperson - Xinhua

Updated - Tuesday, April 13, 2021

• China Daily - Japan harms global community by dumping nuclear waste into sea - By Zhao Manfeng
• South China Morning Post - Why is Japan going to dump radioactive water from Fukushima nuclear plant in the sea? What are the risks and is there an alternative? - Cheryl Heng
• Business Insider - Japan approves plan to dump 1 million tons of wastewater from Fukushima nuclear disaster into the sea, arguing that it has been treated and isn't harmful - Marianne Guenot
• RNZ - Forum calls on Japan to re-think toxic waste dump plans
• The Guardian - Fukushima: Japan announces it will dump contaminated water into sea - Justin Mccurry
• Science Magazine - Japan plans to release Fukushima's wastewater into the ocean - By Dennis Normile
• NPR - Japan To Dump Wastewater From Wrecked Fukushima Nuclear Plant Into Pacific Ocean - Anthony Kuhn

The Case Against Fukushima Releasing Over One Million Metric Tons of Radioactive Wastewater

Beyond Nuclear press release, done in collaboration with the Institute for Public Accuracy.

Update on April 15, 2021 by admin

Thom Hartmann national radio show interview with Beyond Nuclear's Kevin Kamps, "Fukushima Nuclear Fish Coming to Your Plate, Happy?"

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Paul DeRienzo on WBAI News Pacifica Radio interview with Kevin

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Jacqueline Luqman and Sean Blackmon "By Any Means Necessary" Sputnik Radio interview with Kevin, "Japan horrifies neighbors with a plan to dump nuclear wastewater in Pacific" (begins at 45 minute 55 second mark of the program, ends at 59 minute 00 second mark)

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Dennis J. Bernstein "Flashpoints" KPFA Pacifica Radio interview with Kevin, "Japan plans to dump massive amounts of highly toxic radioactive water and waste from the Fukushima meltdown into the Pacific Ocean–California Beach-goers beware" (begins at 32 minute 35 second mark, ends at 51 minute 20 second mark)

China to Japanese official: If treated radioactive water from Fukushima is safe, ‘please drink it’

As reported by the Washington Post.

Factual background

Factual background, provided to complement Beyond Nuclear's press release re: the Japanese government's decision to dump 330 million gallons of highly radioactive wastewater into the Pacific Ocean at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant site:

On April 13, 2021, the Japanese government announced its decision to intentionally discharge, directly into the Pacific Ocean, 1.25 million metric tons of radioactively contaminated wastewater accumulated over the past decade at the triple-reactor meltdown Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant site. The dumping will begin in a couple of years, and continue for decades.

The 330 million U.S. gallons of radioactively contaminated wastewater is enough volume to fill 500 Olympic-sized swimming pools. It is currently contained in more than a thousand giant storage tanks across the site.

Tokyo Electric Power Company’s (TEPCO) latest publicly available data, from December 24, 2020, shows that even though the wastewater is run through the filters of the Advanced Liquid Processing System (ALPS) twice, radioactive tritium concentrations in the wastewater only decreased from 851,000 Becquerels*/liter (Bq/l) to 822,000 Bq/l. — still 13.7 times higher than Japan’s permissible or allowable standard for ocean dumping of tritium-contaminated water, which is 60,000 Bq/l.

Tritium has a 12.3 year half-life, which means 123 to 246 years of hazardous persistence.

The Fukushima wastewater is nearly one million times, or more, the concentration of natural tritium — caused by cosmic radiation’s interaction with the Earth’s atmosphere — in natural surface waters.

The first treatment by ALPS, TEPCO has admitted, also left 7 times the permissible concentration of hazardous Cesium-137 (a muscle-seeker), and around 2,155 times the permissible concentration of hazardous Strontium-90 (a bone-seeker), in the wastewater. Cs-137 and Sr-90 have around 30-year half-lives, meaning 300 to 600 years of hazardous persistence.

A single ALPS filtration, TEPCO’s data shows, also leaves 3 times the permissible level of hazardous Iodine-129 in the wastewater. I-129 has a half-life of 15.7 million years, so a hazardous persistence of 157 to 314 million years.

A single ALPS filtration, TEPCO’s data also shows, leaves 241 times the permissible level of another 55 radio-nuclides.

For these reasons, TEPCO plans to perform two ALPS filtration processes, to render non-tritium contaminants below permissible concentration levels for oceanic release. It also plans to water down the wastewater, to lower the concentration of tritium and non-tritium contaminants.

*A Becquerel is a unit of measure denoting one radioactive disintegration per second.