TOKYO (Reuters) -- The Japanese government’s stubborn decision to dump the nuclear contaminated water into the sea for an unreachable goal will lead to a series of mishaps and disasters, said a Japanese scholar.
The government and the Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings (TEPCO) are using a complex filtration process to treat the contaminated water, which is stored in huge storage tanks at the Fukushima plant. TEPCO is said to be holding about 1.3 million tons of radioactive water, equivalent to about 500 Olympic swimming pools.
In an interview with China Central Television, Kenichi Oshima, professor of policy science at the Ryukoku University in Japan, said the government and the TEPCO have long claimed that the discharge was intended to promote the process of decommissioning reactors at the Fukushima nuclear plant, but he believed the process are unlikely to be completed in the 30 years the government expects.
“Now the disposal of the contaminated water is a hasty decision made after the accident and it is substantially irrational. What the Japanese government is desperately trying to do is to take out the nuclear residue, or the mixture of melted nuclear waste and cement, which is the most radioactive waste. But the stored nuclear contaminated water is affecting the operation, so it needs to be disposed and discharged. However, it’s absolutely impossible to take out the nuclear residue in 30 years. [What the Japanese government is doing] is to achieve an impossible goal, and will cause a series of mistakes,” said Oshima.
On April 5, Kishi Hiroshi, president of the National Federation of Fisheries Cooperative Associations, reiterated the federation’s firm opposition to the disposal when meeting with Hagiuda Koichi, Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry, in Tokyo.
Oshima said the discharge will not only damage the fishing grounds which local fishermen depend for survival, but also affect the surrounding waters and adversely affect the global marine ecological environment. He urges the Japanese government to listen to the constructive advices of countries including China and South Korea.
“I don’t think it’s surprising that people don’t want to buy fish and seafood from the area around Fukushima. The discharge of nuclear water into the sea is also a legitimate concern for neighboring countries because the stakes are high. We should listen to opinions of China and South Korea and it is not Japan’s decision alone,” said the professor.
The Fukushima nuclear disaster is one of the most serious nuclear accidents in the world so far.