Japan not making best efforts to resolve nuclear waste water issue: expert
- 4 years ago
Concerns are rising over Japan's plan to dump vast amount of nuclear waste water into the Pacific Ocean... especially as the 2020 Tokyo Olympics draw near.
Japan has said that it's reviewing various ways to safely discharge the radioactive water... but one nuclear specialist says... that the Japanese government has made bad decisions for cost efficiency, and is not doing the best it can to safely store them.
Our Han Da-eun has more. Senior nuclear specialist Shaun Burnie from Greenpeace Germany has recently visited the Japanese towns of Namie and Itate...in the prefecture of Fukushima.
The Japanese government had lifted evacuation order on those two towns, but an on-site inspection by Greenpeace showed... that dangerous levels of radiation still threatened the safety of residents there.
"(But) The case of Itate and Namie are very clear. The radiation levels generally are not safe, and areas of decontamination are little islands. But they're surrounded by high-levels of radiation. And they're also at risk of recontamination. So the Japanese government's cynical disregard for their human rights and they've been challenged by the UN, special repporteurs, really highlights the fact that the Japaense government is not treating its people as it's legally required to do."
Burnie also says... not only the Japanese government, but also the Tokyo Electric Power Company, the main operator of the Fukushima nuclear power plants, is making decisions in complete disregard for the public and the environment.
TEPCO has recenlty suggested a test-discharging of 'purified water' which it claims only contains low-levels of tritium, while all the other radioactive elements are eliminated.
It says tritium is the least radioactive in comparison to other elements, and does not represent a threat to human health.
But Burnie argues... that what TEPCO calls 'purified water' is far from clean.. and that tritium can also be potentially life-threatening.
"Tokyo Electric is the company that lied through the decades with regards to the safety of their reactors. They're fundamentally wrong about Tritium. Radioactive tritium has a direct effect, can be aborbed by the body effecting potentially human cell structure, DNA. "
The South Korean government has taken the issue to the IAEA in September, as part of efforts to raise global awareness.
To this, the Japanese government reassured the international community that it's carefully examining various ways to safely discharge its nuclear waste water.
But questions remain on whether Japan is making its utmost efforts to resolve the issue in a clean...and safe manner.
"And that means long-term storage, at the Fukushima site if necessary and the immediate area arond the site. But they also have to apply the best available technology for processing that water. They've taken bad decisions over the last years largely for cost-cutting reasons to not apply the best available knowledge and technology."
TEPCO has set 2020 as the year it wou
Japan has said that it's reviewing various ways to safely discharge the radioactive water... but one nuclear specialist says... that the Japanese government has made bad decisions for cost efficiency, and is not doing the best it can to safely store them.
Our Han Da-eun has more. Senior nuclear specialist Shaun Burnie from Greenpeace Germany has recently visited the Japanese towns of Namie and Itate...in the prefecture of Fukushima.
The Japanese government had lifted evacuation order on those two towns, but an on-site inspection by Greenpeace showed... that dangerous levels of radiation still threatened the safety of residents there.
"(But) The case of Itate and Namie are very clear. The radiation levels generally are not safe, and areas of decontamination are little islands. But they're surrounded by high-levels of radiation. And they're also at risk of recontamination. So the Japanese government's cynical disregard for their human rights and they've been challenged by the UN, special repporteurs, really highlights the fact that the Japaense government is not treating its people as it's legally required to do."
Burnie also says... not only the Japanese government, but also the Tokyo Electric Power Company, the main operator of the Fukushima nuclear power plants, is making decisions in complete disregard for the public and the environment.
TEPCO has recenlty suggested a test-discharging of 'purified water' which it claims only contains low-levels of tritium, while all the other radioactive elements are eliminated.
It says tritium is the least radioactive in comparison to other elements, and does not represent a threat to human health.
But Burnie argues... that what TEPCO calls 'purified water' is far from clean.. and that tritium can also be potentially life-threatening.
"Tokyo Electric is the company that lied through the decades with regards to the safety of their reactors. They're fundamentally wrong about Tritium. Radioactive tritium has a direct effect, can be aborbed by the body effecting potentially human cell structure, DNA. "
The South Korean government has taken the issue to the IAEA in September, as part of efforts to raise global awareness.
To this, the Japanese government reassured the international community that it's carefully examining various ways to safely discharge its nuclear waste water.
But questions remain on whether Japan is making its utmost efforts to resolve the issue in a clean...and safe manner.
"And that means long-term storage, at the Fukushima site if necessary and the immediate area arond the site. But they also have to apply the best available technology for processing that water. They've taken bad decisions over the last years largely for cost-cutting reasons to not apply the best available knowledge and technology."
TEPCO has set 2020 as the year it wou