It’s been 10 years since the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami completely devastated the northeast portion of Japan. It was on March 11, 2011 when the earthquake and tsunami took place, causing the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, the worst one since the 1986 Chernobyl disaster in what is now considered a portion of Ukraine took place.
Japan marked the 10th year anniversary this year since the tragic event occurred on their shores with somber ceremonies. The government has also made sure to impress upon the world just how they have recovered from the disaster.
However, the truth is that Japan is still trying to heal from the aftermath of the catastrophe that earned itself a level 7 on the International Nuclear Event Scale, which is the highest level of any nuclear disaster fallout. Since the accident, Japan has already spent trillions of yen in rehabilitation costs, while the actual site is said to require another 40 years before the exclusion zone can even be considered fully rehabilitated.
Because the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant sits on the northeast coast of Japan, the water continues to build up with contaminated water coming from the plant. And according to Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, the country has no choice but to finally start dumping it into the Pacific Ocean.
Considering the level 7 rating the disaster received, it comes as no surprise that nuclear waste and fuel rods continue to contaminate the entire area. In fact, The Japan Times reports that over one million tons of radioactive water continues to flow out from the broken facility. Because of this, Suga claims that the authorities have no choice but having the “unavoidable” position of having to dump the water out.
Meanwhile, the government insists that they will purify the water to the maximum extent possible, but of course such environmental groups such as Greenpeace share that the water they plan to dump is cull of hazardous materials that could cause major harm to both human DNA, as well as to the health of marine life.
#Fukushima water release could change human DNA, Greenpeace warns: a "major contributor to collective human radiation dose and has the potential to damage human DNA." https://t.co/S0864I4Vns
— Jasper Teulings (@Patagorda) October 27, 2020
A number of fishermen are concerned that customers will also refuse to buy fish from them if caught from these contaminated waters. This will tighten things up even more with the already difficult constraints set against them with the restriction of imports from Fukushima prefecture that has been imposed by at least 15 countries and regions since the disaster occurred.
Despite that, the authorities insist that they have no choice but to deal with the laws that have been put in place. Japanese trade minister Hiroshi Kajiyama said, “What to do with the [treated] water is a task that the government can no longer put off without setting a policy.”
Prime Minister Suga is supposedly set to make a decision on what they will do in the coming days. If they move on with the plan, authorities are set to ‘dilute tritium to 2.5 percent of the maximum concentration allowed by the country’ before it gets dumped into the ocean.
And even though the Japanese government claims that the water will be safe, it’s more of a question of whether people will actually trust them or not.
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