Warning – Japan Intends To Pollute The Pacific Ocean
The Japanese government believes that in 2022 they will no longer be able to store any more radioactive water and will begin dumping it into the Ocean.
Why Do They Have So Much Radioactive Water?
Answer: Tsunami.
The Japanese' Fukushima nuclear reactor plant was damaged beyond repair by the tsunami of March 2011. This article in The Guardian tells how much radioactive water they have stored and when they will begin releasing it into the ocean.
Who Will Be Affected By The Dumping?
Answer: Billions of Fish; the Fishing Industry; the population of Japan.
The Japanese Fishing Industry is understandably upset that so much contaminated water will be introduced into the ocean. Neighboring South Korea is also very concerned that this dumping will negatively affect their fishing industry as well.
Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) is struggling to deal with the groundwater that is mixing with the water that was used to keep the overheating power plant cores from melting down. Since seawater is not drinkable, groundwater is necessary to maintain a national population and the groundwater is mixing with contaminated water. Japan may not be able to provide water for their citizens in the years to come. Some new technology will need to be employed to create potable water for the Japanese citizenry.
TEPCO also admits that the water that is to be released into the ocean contains contaminates, including some nuclear material.
Is Dumping Unwanted Nuclear Water The Only Solution?
Certainly not! I did a little study and present the following information for consideration.
What Could Be Done?
Answer: Vaporization will remove radioactive materials and other contaminants.
I found an article about distilling water to remove radiation. This might be able to be done on a large scale thereby vaporizing the water and leaving behind the particulate that includes all the particles of contaminating material.
The remaining nuclear material and all other contaminants can be easily contained in a small fraction of the space required to store the contaminated water.
The problem that remains is Tritium.
What is Tritium & Why Is It A Problem?
Is Tritium Radioactive?
Tritium is a naturally occurring radioactive isotope of Hydrogen. It is known as Hydrogen-3 and notated as 3H.
Tritium occurs naturally but only in very minute quantities. Tritium is one of the least dangerous radionuclides because it has an extremely weak beta particle.
A beta particle is the particle released when the half-life of nuclear material has been reached. Although Tritium has a fairly quick half-life of 12.3 years, the particle released when half-life has been reached has only enough energy to move about 6 millimeters (in the air).
Its weak particle has insufficient energy to penetrate the layer of "dead skin" on the surface of the human body. Therefore the beta particle released in the atmosphere is almost meaningless in terms of radioactive damage. It is so weak it cannot be detected by a Geiger Counter.
Is Tritiated Water Dangerous
Water with Tritium acts almost precisely like water with normal Hydrogen. About 60% of the human adult body is water according to USGS.org in the article The Water In You: Water and the Human Body. Since Tritium occurs naturally, it is certainly in the water of the human body in minute quantities. It is processed out of the body like any water.
Additional Tritium can be introduced into the human body by breathing (vaporous moisture), drinking, or by absorption through the skin (as water) when using water contaminated by excessive Tritium.
Tritiated water is not H2O. Tritiated water occurs naturally in minute amounts as either a molecule of HTO (1 atom of hydrogen, 1 atom of tritium, and 1 atom of oxygen) or as T2O (2 atoms of tritium and 1 atom of oxygen). In either case, when the tritiated water has found its way into the human body and reaches its half-life, the released beta particle will cause ionization in the surrounding body material, slightly increasing the possibility of the surrounding tissue becoming cancerous.
According to Health Physics Society [Specialists in Radiation Safety], it is common for Tritium (3H) to exist in the human body. Therefore the danger of releasing stored tritiated water into the ecosphere is that it increases slightly the possibility of the occurrence of cancer in an organ or other tissue in the human body.
Can Tritiated Water Be Removed From Japan's Storage
A research team including 'Professor Tatsuhiko Ihara of Kindai University specializing in inorganic material chemistry, and researchers from Osaka-based Toyo Aluminium K.K. and others, has developed an aluminum filter with extremely tiny holes 5 nanometers or less in diameter each. The filter can stop vapors of tritium water, and the separation rate was "almost 100 percent," according to a team spokesman.'
That quote is taken directly from an article titled Researchers develop technology to remove radioactive tritium from water in The Manichi—Japan's National Daily since 1922.
The Final Note
There is no need to release radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean.
Japan can take measures to ensure the safety of its water table and the safety of the ocean. The nuclear water being stored can be vaporized and filtered to assure the removal of its contaminants. The process may be slow, so implementation should be started as soon as possible.
It is not only a problem to be shouldered by Japan. It is the result of a major natural catastrophe. The nations of the world should be involved together to manage the release of the water used to safeguard the world from the effect of the possible melt-down of the core of the Fukushima nuclear power plant.
Japan saved us all from the devastation the melt-down of the core would have caused in our ecosphere. Now we must all help Japan clean the water used to prevent that melt-down.
This is our world. Let's work to protect it.
