{"id":95639,"date":"2017-07-17T12:00:47","date_gmt":"2017-07-17T11:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=95639"},"modified":"2017-07-17T11:00:30","modified_gmt":"2017-07-17T10:00:30","slug":"777000-tons-of-radioactive-waste-to-be-dumped-in-pacific","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2017\/07\/777000-tons-of-radioactive-waste-to-be-dumped-in-pacific\/","title":{"rendered":"777,000 Tons of Radioactive Waste to Be Dumped in Pacific"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cIn the broad scale of things, if they do end up putting the material in the Pacific, it will have minimal effect on an ocean basin scale.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Environmental activists fear that dumping the tritium-laced water into the ocean will set a poor example. FILE | Photo: AFP<\/p><\/div>\n

16 Jul 2017 – <\/em>Approximately 580 barrels of radioactive water is to be released into the Pacific Ocean, according to the head of the company responsible for the Fukushima clean-up operation.<\/p>\n

RELATED: Tepco Spots Possible Nuclear Fuel Debris at Japan’s Fukushima<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Residents are displeased with\u00a0the plan to release 777,000 tons of tainted water, from the 2011 Fukushima nuclear plant, into the sea.<\/p>\n

The water is a radioactive from of hydrogen, called tritium \u2013 which was used to cool the nuclear plant’s damaged reactors.<\/p>\n

Takashi Kawamura, chairman of the Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) said: \u201cThe decision has already been made.\u201d But, Tepco is awaiting the go-ahead from the government. \u201cWe cannot keep going if we do not have the support of the state,\u201d Kawamura explained to Japan Times.<\/p>\n

Shunichi Tanaka, chairman of the Nuclear Regulation Authority, who strongly supports releasing the water into the sea has criticized Tepso’s indecisiveness.\u00a0\u201cAn operator lacking the will to take the initiative does not have the right to resume operation of nuclear reactors,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

httpv:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=hzOdSQY60QM<\/p>\n

Unlike Tanaka, the local fishermen are against the proposed ocean release, fearing that the negative publicity will affect their livelihoods.<\/p>\n

\u201cReleasing (tritium) into the sea will create a new wave of unfounded rumors, making our efforts all for naught,\u201d said Kanji Tachiya, head of a local fishermen’s cooperative.<\/p>\n

According to NRA chairman Tanaka, the chemical is \u201cso weak in its radioactivity won’t penetrate plastic wrapping.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tritium\u00a0reportedly poses\u00a0little danger to humans unless exposed to high quantities.<\/p>\n

Oceanographer at the University of Southampton, Simon Boxall, told the Guardian that: \u201cIn the broad scale of things, if they do end up putting the material in the Pacific, it will have minimal effect on an ocean basin scale.\u201d<\/p>\n

Environmental activists fear that dumping the tritium-laced water into the ocean will set a poor example.<\/p>\n

“They say that it will be safe because the ocean is large so it will be diluted, but that sets a precedent that can be copied, essentially permitting anyone to dump nuclear waste into our seas,” Aileen Mioko-Smith of Green Action Japan said.<\/p>\n

The clean-up operation from the Fukushima disaster\u00a0is estimated to cost about $20bn (\u00a314bn).<\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 telesurtv.net<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

16 Jul 2017 – Approximately 580 barrels of radioactive water is to be released into the Pacific Ocean, according to the head of the company responsible for the Fukushima clean-up operation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[61],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-95639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-environment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95639"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95639\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}