No dumping at Fukushima: NFLA joins Welsh call to Japanese Government not to ditch radioactive water at sea

Posted: 23rd April 2022

No dumping at Fukushima: NFLA joins Welsh call to Japanese Government not to ditch radioactive water at sea

The Nuclear Free Local Authorities (NFLA) have joined with leading Welsh anti-nuclear environmental campaign groups in writing to senior Japanese Government ministers urging them not to dump radioactive waste from the Fukushima disaster at sea.

Operated by the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant was hit by an earthquake and a tsunami on 11 March 2011. A disaster unfolded with three nuclear meltdowns, three hydrogen explosions and a release of radiation from three reactors, and Government authorities were forced to evacuate 154,000 people from the surrounding area over a 20-mile radius.

An average of 150 tons of radioactive water was produced each day last year as rainwater and groundwater flowed into the damaged reactor buildings mixing with seawater which has been used to cool the melted nuclear fuel. One million tons of this water is now stored in barrels on the site. Although the contaminated water is treated it cannot remove deadly tritium, a beta-emitting radioactive isotope of hydrogen, and other radioactive materials.

The Japanese government has announced its intention to build an underwater pipe 1km out to sea and discharge the radioactive water there, a proposal opposed by many Japanese and by anti-nuclear groups worldwide. The NFLA is now a co-signatory to a letter written by Welsh campaigners which has today (21 April) been sent to the offices of the Japanese Prime Minister, Fumio Kashida, and three Cabinet Members with responsibility for fisheries, nuclear regulation and the economy.

Explaining why the NFLA has backed this appeal, NFLA Steering Committee Chair, Councillor David Blackburn, said: 

“Eleven years on and the Japanese Government still cannot come up with an environmentally safe solution to resolve the ongoing storage of the contaminated water barrels, instead it has looked to the most expedient but unsound method of getting rid of the problem – just dump it out at sea.  

“The NFLA stands in solidarity with British and Japanese anti-nuclear groups and the many local Japanese who are bitterly opposed to this plan, especially the local fishing community which continues to see its livelihood wrecked.

“In support of the people of Fukushima and of the people of Japan we say ‘No’.” 

Ends://….  

Notes to Editors

The media release can be found on the NFLA website at https://www.nuclearpolicy.info/news/no-dumping-at-fukushima-nfla-joins-welsh-call-to-japanese-government-not-to-ditch-radioactive-water-at-sea/

Attached photo shows some of the contaminated water barrels at Fukushima (Image: Asahi)

The letter to the Japanese government ministers follows.

To: Cabinet Public Affairs Office, Cabinet Secretariat,                  

1-6-1 Nagata-cho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100 – 8968, Japan

21 April 2022

For the attention of: 

KISHIDA Fumio, Prime Minister

KANEKO Genjiro, Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries

HAGIUDA Koichi, Minister in charge of the Response to the Economic Impact caused by the Nuclear Accident
Minister of State for the Nuclear Damage Compensation and Decommissioning Facilitation Corporation

YAMAGUCHI Tsuyoshi, Minister of the Environment 

Dear Cabinet Members,

We, the undersigned, thoroughly condemn the plan by the Japanese Government to discharge into the Pacific Ocean the radioactive water accumulated since the disaster at Fukushima Daichii Nuclear Power Station.

Our voices are joined, not only by those of the Japanese fishing communities and civilians concerned with the environmental and commercial impact of such an action, but by others in the international community. The South Korean Government has expressed regret at the uncertainty of the impact on humans and the environment of the discharge. Chinese scientists have mapped out the possible global effects of the action, the contaminated water likely to spread through the entire Pacific Ocean within ten years, reaching China within the year and the American coast in six.

Why does this matter? It is documented that the Advanced Liquid Processing System (ALPS), used to treat the water accumulated, does not succeed in filtering out Tritium and other toxic industrial chemicals and contaminants contained in over one million tons of water stored and planned for release into the sea.

The work of Tim Deere-Jones, an independent Marine Pollution Researcher and Consultant, who lives in Pembrokeshire in Wales, demonstrates that the elements, particularly Tritium and other radionuclides, remaining after the ALPS treatment are toxic. Eating seafood will be a hazard. Coastal pastures will also become contaminated, affecting dairy and meat products from animals reared on tide washed pastures. During storm surges, contact with and inhalation of particles are dangerous, which can occur up to ten miles inland.

The population living near Fukushima have already received earlier post melt-down doses of radiation from the disaster. Research is needed on the impact of this and further contamination should the water be released.

Meanwhile, the terrible problems from the disaster eleven years ago do not go away, with the health and wellbeing of the communities affected and the solutions of what to do with the waste not yet found. In the same way the problems have an international as well as a local impact, so we should join to find an international solution. We need openness and co-operation to find solutions. We also need to learn the lessons. It has been recently announced that Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) is now having to pay damages of 1.4 billion yen ($12million) to about 3,700 people, whose lives were devastated by the nuclear disaster, with more cases to follow. Let us not now increase that number of people who will suffer from that day, by the act of releasing the toxic water into the ocean.

Yours sincerely,

LINDA C ROGERS

Tŷ Cerrig, Llangoed, Beaumaris, Ynys Môn LL58 8SA, Wales, UK

+44 1248 490715 tel

On behalf of:

People Against Wylfa B (PAWB)

CADNO Trawsfynydd

CND Cymru

Nuclear Free Local Authorities of UK & Ireland