"Half of the Japanese people oppose ocean discharge of polluted water from Fukushima nuclear power plant

A public opinion poll found that half of the Japanese people oppose the purification of radioactive water from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant and discharge into the Pacific Ocean.

According to the Yomiuri Shimbun's survey of 1,51 voters nationwide (based on valid answers) on the 16th and 18th, the Japanese government and Tokyo Electric Power Co., Ltd. were trying to lower the pollutant concentration of the discharged water of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant below the legal standard and discharge it % Only agreed, half, 50% opposed.

The remaining 9% did not express their pros or cons.

In the same survey in March, ahead of the 9th anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake, a majority of 68% showed a reservation about how to dispose of contaminated water, so the proportion of Japanese citizens clearly expressed their opinion that they were ``anti-oceanic discharge''. You can see that it has increased.

In fact, this seems to have nothing to do with the movement of the Japanese government, which has established a policy for ocean discharge, to take steps to finalize it soon.

Japanese media are saying that the government's ocean discharge policy will be officially decided at the'Ministerial Meeting on Decommissioning and Contaminated Water Countermeasures' held as early as the 27th.

At the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant, rainwater and groundwater flow into the circulating cooling water that cools the molten nuclear fuel in the reactor that caused an explosion during the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, causing 160 to 170 tons of contaminated water per day.

TEPCO filters this water with a device called ALPS, and stores it under the name of'treated water' rather than'polluted water'.

The Japanese government and TEPCO are actively considering ways to reduce the pollutant concentration of this treated water, which has increased to 1.23 million tons as of September, to the Pacific Ocean through reprocessing.

However, the Japanese government's final choice is drawing attention, as public opinion in Japan that the fishermen in the Fukushima region should continue to keep on land is rising, and neighboring countries such as Korea and China are also strongly opposed to the release.

(Photo = Yonhap News)