Japan Press Weekly

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2015 January 21 - 27 [SOCIAL ISSUES]

NRA OK’s discharge of radioactive water into ocean

Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) on January 21 approved a plan to pump up groundwater at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant and discharge it into the Pacific Ocean.

At the plant site, the amount of radioactively-contaminated water is increasing as groundwater is flowing into the reactor buildings at a pace of about 300 tons a day and is being mixed with radioactive substances.

In order to curb the increase in contaminated water, the operator of the Fukushima power station, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), is planning to pump up underground water before it reaches the reactor buildings and release it into the sea. TEPCO insists that they can halve the inflow of groundwater by doing so.

Meanwhile, the utility admits that the wells near the buildings, from which the operator is going to draw water, are also affected by radioactivity from the damaged reactors. TEPCO claims that before releasing pumped-up water into the ocean, they will lower the concentration of the water’s radioactive materials, including cesium and strontium.

Many local people, including fishermen’s associations, are opposing the plan.

Nakajima Takashi, 59, who runs a grocery store in Fukushima’s Soma City, said, “Both the government and TEPCO are treating disaster victims lightly. I will never tolerate such an awful plan.”


Past related article:
> State should play its role in tackling problems of radioactive water in Fukushima plant [August 25, 2014]