Japan plans to release Fukushima water as early as August 24th
Japan plans to release Fukushima water as early as August 24th
This news article doesn’t have the dates announced, but bloomberg does.
I didn’t want to post something with a paywall.
I’d still watch that movie. Start off by tuning in to the headlines from Exposition News Network to set up the plot, follow with ominous music while workers do industrial things in the rain. When the time is right, release valves open and alarm bells start ringing. Water floods out and mixes into the ocean where it (and the camera view) are swept away by powerful underwater currents.
Cut to an anonymous island in the Pacific where a dragonfly is zipping around doing dragonfly stuff. Give it a little more screentime and then a lizard explodes into the frame to snatch it out of the air. After its hard-earned meal, the lizard heads down to the waterline to swim/drink/scope out some hot single lizard babes in their area or whatever they do. Ominous music returns in time for the fed and hydrated lizard to sneak off for a nap.
The rest of the movie is just a wordless lizard documentary where we follow it around through a few days in its perfectly ordinary life.
Don’t even have to look so far. Japan’s work ethic is awful, suicide rates are high and because of this the birth rate is declining.
I was very suspicious on China’s remarks as they have a track record of doing PR for themselves and no one else.
Or in terms of actual nuclear containment issues:
We really need to clean it up properly, not to mention take care of the people impacted by it’s creation.
Though with the Tomb, this passage from Wikipedia should be kept in mind:
However, the soil around the dome was found to be more contaminated than its contents, so a breach could not increase the radiation levels by any means. Because the cleaning operation in the 1970s only removed an estimated 0.8 percent of the total transuranic waste in the Enewetak atoll, the soil and the lagoon water surrounding the structure now contain a higher level of radioactivity than the debris of the dome itself, so even in the event of a total collapse, the radiation dose delivered to the local resident population or marine environment should not change significantly.
This only makes the whole thing more fucked up, but at least the tomb itself isn’t quite as bad as it sounded when I started reading up about it. By virtue of everything else being much worse. Fuck. I think that’s enough internet for today. :'(
If you wantwd to do some further watching on the subject, here’s a great video on the Marshall Islands and their current state of affairs in regards to the Tomb and climate change
linky link to an ABC News video
Just a warning though, it’s a pretty frustrating and depressing situation.
Also the video is like 40 minutes long.
For anyone curious:
From Wikipedia:
The total mass of Earth’s hydrosphere is about 1.4 × 10^18 tonnes, which is about 0.023% of Earth’s total mass.
Thing is, they’re not gonna spread it out across the oceans of the world. They’re gonna release it off the coast of Japan, and it will take time before it’s spread around and diluted. It might very well affect the fauna and flora off the coast of Japan, which makes it a concern of South Korea and China as well.
Even if we believe the impact of oceanic life to be minimal, it might still very much affect the perception of Chinese and Korean seafood and worry domestic and foreign consumers. What China and South Korea are complaining about is that Japan was supposed to consult all impacted parties on this release, which they are not doing.
At the end of the day, it’s entirely possible this release is harmless, but I don’t think Korea and China are wrong to raise concerns here.
Do you drink sea water? Do you drink your shower or toilet water? Or the water you use for cleaning?
I wouldn’t.