Soon the storage place for radioactive water at the Fukushima nuclear power plant will end

Recently, the topic of the accident at the Fukushima nuclear power plant has hardly been discussed in the press, but meanwhile the point in this sad story has not yet been set. A few years ago, scientists presented preliminary data on the effects of radioactive contamination, but huge volumes of radioactive water still remain in temporary storage facilities. The other day, Japanese authorities announced that they did not have sufficient means to neutralize hazardous waste, so they would soon be forced to drain radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean.

More than 8 years have already passed since the accident at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant after a strong earthquake. A significant amount of water contaminated with cesium-137 got into the Pacific Ocean. Water contaminated with radioactive substances is generated at the emergency station daily. According to various estimates, its volume is from 200 to 300 tons daily.

This dangerous liquid is supposedly contaminated with strontium-90, cobalt-60 and tritium, but the station management does not advertise the exact composition and concentration of hazardous components. TEPCO officials also reported that the water was purified from cesium and strontium, and at the moment the radioactive liquid contains only tritium.

Now she is going to sealed containers of 1000 liters at a special site. But their number is limited, and, as the station management assures, by 2022 the capacity of all containers will be exhausted. The situation is complicated by the fact that at the moment there is no technology available from a material point of view that would allow the liquid to be cleaned of tritium. What modern science has to offer in this case is too expensive. Neither the company nor the Japanese government are ready to make such costs.

In this regard, the statement of the Minister of Environmental Protection, who said that radioactive water, most likely, will have to be drained into the Pacific Ocean, looks quite logical. True, the minister has already been deprived of his post, and a final decision on this issue has not yet been made. The statement made by the dignitary provoked indignation among ecologists, fishermen, and the Japanese population. But in any case, the work of the Fukushima station is far from complete. And if you are interested in how pollution from the station spreads in the waters of the Pacific Ocean and which countries have already suffered from the accident at the Japanese nuclear power plant, then you can read about this in one of our previous materials.