Scientists find no evidence of harm to marine organisms from release of Fukushima waters

Vladivostok, July 7 – The discharge of the accumulated water at the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan after cooling the reactors and cleaning them from radionuclides will not affect marine life, including deep-sea animals, as it will be diluted, and after mixing with deep water, it will sink, “Ria Novosti,” head of the Center for Aquaculture and Resources Coastal Biology National Scientific Center for Marine Biology. a. Zhirmonsky FEB RAS Sergey Maslennikov.

This summer, Japan plans to start draining water purified from all radionuclides except tritium into the ocean at a distance of one kilometer from the station. On Friday, the South Korean government released its report assessing Japan’s plan to dump low-level radioactive water into the ocean, noting that “compliance with international standards has been confirmed” and that the impact on South Korea’s seawater will be minimal. This coincides with the conclusions contained in the IAEA report. At the same time, South Korea will not lift the ban on imports of products from Fukushima and eight other Japanese prefectures.

“Fukushima is located in the Sendai Bay, the coast of the Pacific Ocean, do not look at Russia. The system of currents is not directed towards the Russian Federation. When an accident occurred, the radionuclides flew to where the reactor came from – to the USA. The surface current is directed towards America. Ie The current does not flow to us from this side. In addition, Japan is located in a very deep place: there is a deep-water trench, in which there are huge amounts of water. So you can dilute the water.

He noted that, according to Japan, the water is diluted to a safe level – under background radiation.

“Technically, it is not difficult to do this. This is a simple technique, it is used. Radionuclides are cleaned, if it is difficult to clean, the water is diluted. In general, it will be safe if everything is done declared. You can always check it , And measure the radiation background alive. There will certainly be no harm to living organisms, “said the source.

According to Maslennikov, this water was stored for a long time, and the non-radioactive parts gradually evaporated.

The specialist pointed out that “the salinity is increasing, and if this water mixes with deep water, this water will sink to a depth of several kilometers. In addition, it will dilute so that it does not reach the animals of the deep sea.” .

The scientist added that it is important not to leave the accumulated damage to future generations, and now Japan has no other way out of this situation than to empty the pure water.

“When the reactor was cooled, a lot of water was used, there was massive radiation. And when the danger was eliminated, the water accumulated on the ground. If it’s not flooded now, it’s a huge danger. If it starts to evaporate. Then the (radionuclide) concentration will increase.” .And this is more serious.”

In this situation, Maslennikov concluded, the main thing is that there should be an opening on the part of Japan.

During the accident at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant in 2011, nuclear fuel melted in reactors one, two and three. Water used to cool reactors and contaminated with radioactive substances passes through the multistage ALPS system, which makes it possible to purify it from 62 types of radionuclides, with the exception of tritium. Tritium is a radioactive isotope of hydrogen, otherwise it’s called “superheavy hydrogen,” or 3H, which makes it difficult to clean water from. Tritium exists in nature, due to its weak beta radiation, its effect on humans is limited, and at the same time it is dangerous if it enters the body. Water purified from radionuclides, except for tritium, is now stored in giant tanks at the station. Every day, about 140 tons of radioactive water are added to it. About 1,000 giant tanks are installed at the station, but 90% of its 1.37 million tons has already been filled.

The issue of water disposal methods has been considered since 2013. Among other things, options for mixing it with cement and concrete underground, for hydrogen separation by electrolysis, and others were considered. In the end, the government decided to start dumping the water into the sea, after diluting it and raising the tritium concentration to 1,500 Bq per liter, which was 40 times less than the standard in Japan for dumping water into the sea from the process. Operating nuclear power plants – 60 thousand Bq. According to the Japanese Ministry of Industry, the radioactivity of tritium in the 1.25 million tons of water accumulated at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant is 860 trillion becquerels. Before the accident, the station was annually drenched in seawater containing 2.2 trillion becquerels of tritium.