Fukushima’s Release of Radioactive Water: Can We Still Eat Seafood?
Image Courtesy: National Geographic
A dozen years after a nuclear meltdown, Japan has just begun releasing treated radioactive wastewater from its damaged Fukushima power plant into the Pacific Ocean. Despite the International Atomic Energy Agency’s claim that the water will have a “negligible” radiological impact on people and the environment, concerns about the potential hazards of the release have sparked protests and outrages in multiple countries. What exactly happened 12 years ago that led up to this move by Japan?
On March 11, 2011, Japan experienced the strongest earthquake in its recorded history. The earthquake struck below the North Pacific near the Tohoku region, a northern part of the island of Honshu. It had a magnitude of 9.1 and caused a tsunami with waves up to 40 meters high. More than 450,000 people were displaced as a result, and more than 15,500 died. The Tohoku earthquake and tsunami severely crippled the infrastructure of the country and caused the meltdown of three nuclear reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. This meltdown released toxic, radioactive materials into the environment and forced thousands of people to evacuate their homes and businesses.
Since the accident, over 1.3 million tons of nuclear wastewater have been collected, treated, and stored in a tank farm at the power plant. Now, the tank farm’s storage space is about to run out, leaving Japan no choice other than to begin dispensing the wastewater into the Pacific. Japan’s plan is to incrementally release the wastewater over the next three decades, although some experts say it could take longer, given the amount still being produced. While the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)—the UN’s nuclear watchdog—assesses the plan’s safety, some of Japan’s neighbors criticize it as unilateral and hazardous. A senior Chinese official called it a risk “to all mankind” and accused Japan of using the Pacific as a “sewer.” On May 15, 2023, South Korea’s opposition leader mocked Japan’s claims that the water is safe enough to drink: “If it is safe enough to drink, they should use it as drinking water.” Even American scientists raised concerns about how marine life and ocean currents could carry harmful radioactive isotopes—radionuclides—across the entire Pacific Ocean. Finally, however, on August 24, 2023, Japan began releasing the treated radioactive wastewater at 1:03 p.m. local time.
The release caused outrage among many, especially Japan’s neighbors. On the day of the release, South Korean protesters in Seoul attempted to storm the Japanese embassy, and similar angry demonstrations were also held in Hong Kong and Tokyo. Following the announcement of the release, China even declared it would suspend all imports of seafood from Japan. On August 30, Fumio Kishida, the Japanese prime minister, in an attempt to quell concerns about the release, ate fish caught off Fukushima’s coast along with three officials. The prime minister was filmed eating the fish; “This is very good,” he commented— “safe and delicious.” The effect this had on appeasing the concerns, however, is debatable.
So is the release actually safe? Can we still consume seafood caught from the ocean into which the wastewater was released? Before the release, Robert Richmond, director of the Kewalo Marine Laboratory at the University of Hawaii, and a scientific adviser on the discharge plan to the Pacific Islands Forum, cited studies showing that the radionuclides and debris released during the initial Fukushima accident were quickly detected nearly 9,000 kilometers away off the coast of California. He said that radioactive elements in the discharges may once again spread across the ocean. The radionuclides could be carried by ocean currents, especially the cross-Pacific Kuroshio current. In addition, a study done earlier refers to microplastics—tiny plastic particles that are increasingly widespread in oceans—as a potential “Trojan horse” of radionuclide transport. And when ingested, those isotopes may “accumulate in a variety of invertebrates, fish, marine mammals, and humans.” With these studies and more, Richmond and his scientific advisers published an opinion piece with the message that not enough is yet known about the wastewater’s potential effects on environmental and human health, calling for Japan to delay the releases.
Richmond and his colleagues are not the only American scientists raising urgent concerns. In December 2022, the US-based National Association of Marine Laboratories released a statement that opposed the wastewater release plan. It cited “a lack of adequate and accurate scientific data supporting Japan’s assertion of safety.” The release, it stated, may threaten the “largest continuous body of water on the planet, containing the greatest biomass of organisms … including 70 percent of the world’s fisheries.”
Nonetheless, because distance and time lower radioactivity levels, “we’re not going to die”, says Ken Buesseler, a marine radiochemist and adviser to the Pacific Islands Forum.. Instead, the releases need to be viewed in perspective. Although it may seem selfish and irresponsible for Japan to release such vast amounts of radioactive wastewater into the ocean, Japan made the unavoidable move that has been building up for the last 12 years. The release will cause harm and hazards for other countries, but Japan has suffered greatly from the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami and their aftermath. The blame should be not on Japan but on Mother Nature, which we cannot control.