UN Experts Decry Japan's Plan to Dump Radioactive Fukushima Wastewater Into Ocean
April 16, 2021 "The decision is particularly disappointing as experts believe alternative solutions to the problem are available," said the three special rapporteurs.
The article quotes Beyond Nuclear's Cindy Folkers:
Cindy Folkers, radiation and health hazards specialist at the advocacy group Beyond Nuclear, said in a statement Wednesday that Fukushima Daiichi operator Tokyo Electric Power Company (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 will concentrate up the food chain in ocean life."
"Some of the contamination may not travel out to sea and can double back on itself," said Folkers. "Dilution doesn't work for radioactive isotopes, particularly tritium, which research shows can travel upstream."
"TEPCO data show that even twice-through filtration leaves the water 13.7 times more concentrated with hazardous tritium—radioactive hydrogen—than Japan's allowable standard for ocean dumping, and about one million times higher than the concentration of natural tritium in Earth's surface waters," she added.