German experts say
Nuclear wastewater pollutants will reach consumers' plates through the marine food chain
Science and Technology Daily, Beijing, April 13 (Intern reporter Zhang Jiaxin) On the 13th, the Japanese government decided to discharge the nuclear waste water from the Tokyo Electric Power Company's Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant into the ocean at the cabinet meeting that day.
German experts say that nuclear waste water pollutants will soon reach consumers' plates through the ocean’s food chain.
Japanese officials opposed the media's description of these nuclear wastewater as "contaminated" or "radioactive", insisting that the water was "treated" and only the relatively harmless "tritium" remained.
But German media RND reported that despite this, suspicion of Japan still exists.
Japan’s nuclear power plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Company has issued misleading messages many times after the nuclear disaster.
It turns out that three years ago, the technology used at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant was not as effective as promised: radioactive elements can still be detected in sewage.
Al Jazeera reported that a demonstration against Japan’s discharge of nuclear waste water took place outside the Japanese Embassy in South Korea, and some protesters considered the move to be “nuclear terrorism”.
An article published in the Monthly Magazine of Scientific American in 2014 stated that ingestion of tritium would increase the risk of cancer, and some experts were concerned about the presence of other pollutants in the water discharged from Japan.
According to a Reuters report, Tokyo Electric Power Company said that despite years of treatment, the accumulated water still contains a large number of harmful isotopes.
Ken Bisseler, a senior scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts, said: "I am worried that the non-tritium radioactive contaminants in the storage tanks are still at a high level of pollution." Woods Hole Marine Research has studied the waters around Fukushima. The expert Ken Buesler added, “Other pollutants have greater health risks than tritium and are more likely to accumulate in seafood and seabed sediments.”
Alex Rosen, co-chair of the German branch of the International Association of Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, criticized last year: "If these substances are released into the sea, they are likely to be found in the animals and plants on the seabed. They will be found in fish, It accumulates in seafood and algae, and will soon reach consumers’ plates through the ocean’s food chain."
The UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights Marcos Orellana tweeted: “Multi-nuclide removal equipment cannot remove tritium in water. Although some scientists say its radiation is very low, others warn that people underestimate it. The hazards of tritium, the risks it brings to humans and the environment will continue for more than 100 years."