The Atomic Energy Council (AEC) yesterday said that it would soon offer tritium concentration diffusion forecasts for sea water after Japan announced that starting tomorrow, it would discharge treated and diluted radioactive wastewater from the stricken Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant into the Pacific Ocean.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida gave the final go-ahead yesterday at a meeting of ministers involved in the plan and instructed the operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co, to be ready to start the coastal release tomorrow if weather and sea conditions permit.
Based on the nuclear plant’s design, the tritium-containing wastewater would first be filtered by an advanced liquid processing system and discharged through an undersea tunnel into waters about 1km off the coast, the council said.
Photo: AFP
The amount of tritium discharged into the ocean would be capped at 22 trillion becquerels per year — the cap set for the Fukushima plant when it was operating normally before the disaster in 2011.
The design of the nuclear wastewater discharge was reviewed and inspected by Japan’s Nuclear Regulatory Authority and meets the safety requirement for international nuclear power plants, the council said.
The government is to adopt several key measures in response to the move’s potential repercussions on the oceanic environment, the council said.
To study how the discharge of radioactive wastewater would affect waters around Taiwan, the council said in a statement that its Institute of Nuclear Energy Research has been working with the Central Weather Bureau to conduct diffusion simulation analyses on tritium concentration in the sea, based on 10 years of data collected after the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011.
The results showed that most of the wastewater flowed east toward the US west coast, the council said.
A small portion reached waters near Taiwan about one to two years after the discharge through a mesoscale eddy in the north Pacific Ocean, it said.
The tritium concentration is to reach maximum levels in about four years after the discharge starts, but it would still be far below normal background radiation levels, it said.
The discharge would have a “negligible impact” on the safety of waters near Taiwan,” it added.
“We will continue to conduct diffusion simulation analyses and begin to offer ocean tritium concentration diffusion forecasts after the discharge begins,” the council said.
The council added that it would work with the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ocean Affairs Council to regularly sample seawater and Taiwanese and Japanese seafood products to ensure that they meet food safety requirements.
The International Atomic Energy Agency on July 4 said that a joint investigation by 11 agency members showed that Japan’s nuclear wastewater discharge plan meets international safety standards and would have negligible effects on people and the environment, the council said.
Taiwanese experts also arrived at similar conclusions after conducting on-site inspections three times, it said.
“However, given that the nuclear wastewater discharge is to continue for more than 30 years, we will continue to monitor the operation and ask Japan to have an emergency response plan for any abnormality or emergency situation,” the council said.
Additional reporting by AP
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