11 years after the Fukushima earthquake in Japan, the sewage treatment of nuclear power plants is still a problem. Japan has previously made a decision to discharge nuclear sewage into the sea, but it was opposed by local fishermen and neighboring countries. In order to eliminate everyone’s concerns about the safety of nuclear sewage Worried, Japan has begun experimenting with nuclear-treated water for fish farming.
According to Japanese media reports, Tokyo Electric Power Company, the operator of the Fukushima nuclear power plant, recently disclosed the test.The radioactive tritium content of the nuclear treated water was kept at a certain concentration for cultivating flounder and observing its growth.
The test officially started in September. TEPCO set up three scenarios, one with a tritium concentration of 1,500 becquerels per liter, simulating the situation when nuclear sewage is discharged into the ocean, and one with a tritium concentration of 30 becquerels per liter, This is the state of the pipe outlet when it is discharged into the ocean, and the other case is ordinary sea water. As a comparison reference, each tank will raise 400 flounders in the three cases.
There will also be trials using abalone in October, and there will be seaweed farming trials in 2023.The results of the assessment will be announced by March 2023, the date Japan has set to officially discharge Fukushima nuclear sewage into the sea.
Previously, according to TEPCO’s plan, the sewage would be diluted with seawater and then discharged about 1 km offshore through a submarine tunnel. At present, the submarine excavation construction that will become the “discharge port” of nuclear polluted water has been basically completed.
According to the hazard map previously released by CCTV news,The Fukushima nuclear wastewater still contains radionuclides after treatment, including radionuclides such as tritium, strontium, cesium, and iodine. Once the discharge begins, these radioactive substances will spread to most of the Pacific Ocean within 57 days.
It will eventually spread to the global waters in 10 years, with global impacts, and the carbon contained in wastewater will be dangerous for thousands of years.
