0Empty0Japan plans to release Fukushima water as early as August 24th
Good, it’s about time. Tritiated water just isn’t dangerous. The ocean naturally contains billions of tons of URANIUM. A few kilograms of short lived tritium isn’t going to matter at all.
1bluepixelThing 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.
It’s not that the impact will be minimal, it is that it will not be present. It’s not that it’s possible that the release will be harmless. It’s a fact that it will be harmless. China and Korea are “raising concerns” because if they can economically punish the Japanese for being monsters during WW2 and the Japanese occupation of Korea, they will. And they’ll do that whether the water is properly released now or if we futz about for ten more years and THEN release it.