{"id":32884,"date":"2023-01-31T07:22:24","date_gmt":"2023-01-31T01:52:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=32884"},"modified":"2025-04-19T16:55:08","modified_gmt":"2025-04-19T11:25:08","slug":"japan-planning-to-flush-fukushima-wastewater-into-the-ocean","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/japan-planning-to-flush-fukushima-wastewater-into-the-ocean\/","title":{"rendered":"Japan planning to flush Fukushima wastewater into the ocean"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><strong>What\u2019s in today\u2019s article?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Why in news?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>What was Fukushima nuclear disaster?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>What does Japanese government want?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>What this move of Japanese govt is being opposed?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>What are Japan\u2019s other options?<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2><strong>Why in news?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>As part of a decommissioning project, Japan is expected to start flushing 1.25 million tonnes of wastewater from its Fukushima nuclear power plant into the Pacific Ocean this year.<\/li>\n<li>Experts are sceptical about this idea due to its suspected impact on the water, marine life, fishers\u2019 livelihoods and other countries in the area.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>What was Fukushima nuclear disaster?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>\u00a0In March 2011, after a magnitude 9 earthquake, a tsunami flooded the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Okuma and damaged its diesel generators.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>The loss of power suspended coolant supply to reactors at the facility; the tsunami also disabled backup systems. This lead to Fukushima disaster.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>Soon, radioactive materials leaked from reactor pressure vessels, exploded in the facility\u2019s upper levels, and exposed themselves to the ambient air, water, soil, and local population.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>Winds also carried radioactive material thrown up into the air into the Pacific.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>Since then, the power plant and its surrounding land have been uninhabitable.\u00a0<strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>What does Japanese government want?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The water that the Japanese government wants to flush from the plant was used to cool the reactors, plus rainwater and groundwater.\u00a0\n<ul>\n<li>It contains radioactive isotopes from the damaged reactors and is thus itself radioactive.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Japan has said that it will release this water into the Pacific Ocean over the next 30 years.\n<ul>\n<li>Nuclear plants around the world regularly release water containing trace amounts of radionuclides into large waterbodies.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>For this, water is being treated to remove most radioactive isotopes. This water will be far above safety standards.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2><strong>What this move of Japanese govt is being opposed?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>No known threshold<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Japanese officials claim that the water will be treated before its release. However, experts claim that there is no known threshold below which radiation can be considered safe.<\/li>\n<li>Any discharge of radioactive materials will increase the risk of cancer and other known health impacts to those who are exposed.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Difficult to remove tritium from the water<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Removing tritium from the water is a very difficult task.\u00a0\n<ul>\n<li>tritium, (T, or 3H), the isotope of hydrogen with atomic weight of approximately 3.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>But removal of tritium is necessary as it is easily absorbed by the bodies of living beings and rapidly distributed via blood.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Impact on marine lives and livelihoods of the fisherfolk in the region<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Experts expect the affected water to poison the fish.<\/li>\n<li>South Korea banned seafood imported from around Fukushima, to Japan\u2019s displeasure, from 2013.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Impact on Pacific Ocean<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>There are concerns about the waterbody as well as the region.\n<ul>\n<li>China, South Korea, Taiwan and Pacific Islands Forum have expressed concerns over this.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Researchers across the world have also called for more studies to understand the precise composition of each tank before it is flushed.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2><strong>What are Japan\u2019s other options?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Store the water for longer and then discharge it.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>This is because tritium\u2019s half-life \u2013 the time it takes for its quantity to be halved through radioactive decay \u2013 is 12-13 years.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>The quantity of any other radioactive isotopes present in the water will also decrease in this time.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>So at the time of discharge, the water could be less radioactive.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3><strong>Q1)\u00a0<\/strong><strong>How did the Fukushima accident happen?\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>\u00a0An earthquake and tsunami led to power loss in the Fukushima Daiichi plant. Without power, the cooling systems failed in three reactors, and their cores subsequently overheated.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<h3><strong>Q2)<\/strong>\u00a0<strong>What was Chernobyl disaster?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>\u00a0The Chernobyl accident in 1986 was the result of a flawed reactor design that was operated with inadequately trained personnel. The resulting steam explosion and fires released at least 5% of the radioactive reactor core into the environment, with the deposition of radioactive materials in many parts of Europe.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Source:\u00a0<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/sci-tech\/science\/explained-japans-decision-to-flush-fukushima-wastewater-into-the-ocean\/article66432630.ece#:~:text=The%20water%20that%20the%20Japanese,over%20the%20next%2030%20years.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>Why is Japan planning to flush Fukushima wastewater into the ocean?<\/u><\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/us-japan-fukushima-returnees-idUSKBN16F083\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>Reuters<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Okuma was damaged in March 2011 after a magnitude 9 earthquake.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":32885,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-32884","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-mains-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32884"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32884\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}