Press statement from Cindy Folkers, Radiation and Health Hazard Specialist, Beyond Nuclear

Full press statement by Cindy Folkers, provided as a part of 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:

"TEPCO wants us to believe that the radioactive contamination in this water will be diluted in the ocean waters. But some of the radioactive isotopes, like strontium-90, which our bodies mistake for calcium, will concentrate up the food chain. And depending on where at the shoreline this water is dumped, some of the contamination may not travel out to sea and can double back on itself depending on wind and weather patterns. Dilution doesn’t work for radioactive isotopes particularly tritium which research shows can travel upstream.

Further, the radioactive isotopes remaining in the water can have special negative impact on women and pregnancy. Tritium and carbon-14 can concentrate in fetal tissue at twice the amount they do in maternal tissue. Strontium seems to collect more in women’s bodies than men’s.

In June 2020, nearly 80 groups from around the world signed and submitted a letter to METI, asking them to not dump this water contaminated by man-made radiation into the Pacific and countless others signed petitions and submitted comments in the decade since this nuclear catastrophe began. This whole mess is a human rights violation of the first order and sets a horrible precedent that seems to reward the nuclear industry’s careless arrogance."