2023-11-02 04:51:24
– Start of the 3rd phase of water release from the damaged power plant
This third phase should allow the release of some 7,800 tonnes of treated water from the damaged power plant.
Published today at 5:51 a.m.
Experts from the Japanese Nuclear Regulatory Agency in the waters around Fukushima.
AFP
On August 24, Japan began evacuating into the Pacific Ocean the water used in particular to cool the cores of the three reactors of the Fukushima Daiichi power plant (north-east) which had melted following the 2011 tsunami. Also from groundwater and rain, this water was stored for a long time in huge tanks on the site of the power plant and treated to rid it of its radioactive substances, with the exception of tritium, which is only dangerous at very high concentrated doses according to experts.
This water was treated using the ALPS system (“Advanced Liquid Treatment System”) to rid it of radioactive substances, with the exception of tritium, a radionuclide which is only dangerous at very high concentrated doses according to experts.
The equivalent of 540 Olympic swimming pools
This is why the water is diluted with sea water before being discharged into the Pacific Ocean, so that its radioactivity level does not exceed the target ceiling of 1,500 Bq/L, i.e. a level 40 times lower than the Japanese standard for this type of operation.
The release into the sea was validated by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). But the launch of the process caused a diplomatic crisis between Japan and China, which has suspended all its imports of Japanese seafood since the end of August, followed since by Russia. The Chinese ban has particularly affected scallop fishermen on the northern island of Hokkaido, some 500 kilometers north of the Fukushima plant, who rely on Chinese factories to shell the molluscs.
In total, Japan plans to release more than 1.3 million m3 of tritiated water from Fukushima into the Pacific Ocean – the equivalent of 540 Olympic swimming pools – but in an extremely gradual manner, until the early 2050s. according to the current schedule.
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