It all started in 2011, with a series of apocalyptic events: first came the ‘Great East Japan Earthquake’ with a magnitude of 9,0, that generated a large Tsunami that destroyed the Fukushima nuclear plant, causing three nuclear meltdowns, three hydrogen explosions, and the release of radioactive contamination.
Since then, power plant company Tepco has been pumping in water to cool down the reactors’ fuel rods. In this way, every day the plant produces more contaminated water, which is treated and stored in massive tanks.
That is not a long-term solution, and the Japanese were caught between the devil and the deep blue sea.
Even after treatment, the water still contains high levels of radioactive substances tritium and carbon-14, which are difficult to remove.
Japan’s solution became to dilute this radioactive liquid with more seawater before releasing it back into the Pacific ocean. We are talking about 30,000 tons of treated nuclear wastewater. Not just a drop in the ocean.
Japan insists that the further diluted water is safe, and many scientists seems to agree. The UN’s nuclear watchdog IAEA has also approved the plan.
But China, the biggest buyer of seafood from Japan, has not accepted the assessment, and proceeded to block all such imports, putting the neighbors oceans apart.
Many critics also say that more studies need to be done, call for the release to be halted.
Washington Post reported:
“Chinese customers are calling for boycotts of Japanese products from high-end skin-care creams to everyday household goods in retaliation for the release of treated wastewater from the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant.
The effort is shaping up to be the largest campaign of state-supported nationalist outrage against Japan in more than a decade and comes at a time of widening divisions between China and U.S.-aligned countries in the region.”
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