Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin called the plan ‘extremely selfish and irresponsible’. Nonetheless, scientific evidence has done little to calm the backlash against Japan’s plans. Contrastingly, experts in National Geographic indicate that while the release should be monitored closely and some of the possible impacts remain unknown and are therefore cause for some concern, there is no concrete basis for panic over the health of the Pacific Ocean and human wellbeing. Greenpeace Japan opposes the plans, stating the decision ‘ignores people’s concerns’, and that an alternative solution should be sought. It concludes the release is ‘consistent with relevant international safety standards‘, explaining that ‘discharges of the treated water would have a negligible radiological impact to people and the environment‘.Įnvironmental and activist groups’ responses to the release have been mixed. While there have been large concerns over the release of water from Fukushima, some experts have argued that there was no need for panic, and that it would have little impact on the environment and on human health.įurther indicating the safety of the release, the UN‘s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has conducted a two-year review of the planned release at the Fukushima facility by internationally recognised nuclear safety experts. Smith states the practice has gone on ‘for decades without significant impacts’ on the environment and human health.

Even in the UK, the Sellafield nuclear facility annually releases 50 times more tritium into the ocean than the Fukushima plant. As Professor of Environmental Science at the University of Portsmouth, Jim Smith explains, the release of water containing tritium is commonplace for nuclear plants globally, ironically including in China and South Korea, where opposition to Japan’s plans is fiercest. The planned release of Fukushima water is surprisingly uncontroversial among experts, despite some suggestions that the long-term impact of exposure to tritium has not yet been sufficiently explored. However, tritium, a radioactive isotope of hydrogen, remains in the water even after filtration. The water has been filtered through an Advanced Liquid Processing System (ALPS) to remove most radioactive elements.

Since the disaster, the plant operator, Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) has been storing the contaminated water in 1000 tanks, which are now close to capacity, leading to the decision to release the water into the Ocean. Katharina Sharma explains in this article, whether the Japanese government’s decision was legitimate and unacceptable or not, and the reasons surrounding the controversy behind it.Īmidst protests from China, the South Korean public, and environmental groups, Japan began releasing over 1.3 million cubic meters of contaminated water stored at the 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident site into the Pacific Ocean. This decision has generated controversy, as TEPCO, the Japanese company responsible for treating the radioactive water, was unable to filter tritium from the radioactive water. This comes after the UN Nuclear Watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) gave the approval to the Japanese government to release the water. Recently, the Japanese government made the decision to release contaminated radioactive water from the Fukushima Daichi Nuclear Power Plant into the Pacific Ocean.

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