Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant prepares to release diluted radioactive water into the sea (www.koreatimes.co.kr)

submitted 1 year ago by jeena@jemmy.jeena.net to c/worldnews@lemmy.ml

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There go my swimming on Korea's east side plans for this year.

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[-] jeena@jemmy.jeena.net 0 points 1 year ago

That's a weird comparison, isn't the concentration in one place which makes radioactive materials dangerous? (Not saying that the water has enough radioactive material, just saying that comparing it to the sun and the whole world doesn't make sense).

[-] Arrakis@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

It's not weird and does make sense; since the sun's huge amount of radiation is dispersed around the world, they are asking if so too might this tiny amount of radiation be dispersed around the ocean. (We should not put down someone for asking questions, learning is good!)

[-] jeena@jemmy.jeena.net 0 points 1 year ago

But it's first released in one place where (if it was in dangerous amounts) it would affect the maritime life whereas the sun is distributed from the start.

[-] 133arc585@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

The concentration at which it is released is already internationally regarded as safe. They aren't dumping a high concentration that, by nature of distribution in the ocean, will eventually reach a safe concentration. They're diluting it to safe levels before they even release it. I'm going to copy part of another comment I made in this thread here:

Here's an IAEA overview as of February 2023,

The discharge of the ALPS treated water into the sea will be conducted after i) purification/re-purification to meet regulatory standards set based on international standards with an exception of tritium and ii) to allay the concerns of the consumers, the target concentration of tritium should be the same as the operational target (less than 1,500 Bq/L, that is less than 1/40 of the regulatory standard value for tritium) by sufficient dilution (more than 100 times) by sea water, prior to the discharge into the sea, and iii) The total annual amount of tritium to be discharged will be at a level below the operational target value for tritium discharge of the Fukushima Daiichi NPS before the accident (22 trillion Bq/year).