Fukushima, by 2022 storage space for radioactive water will run out
Environment — di Andrea Barolini
In three years' time, the Fukushima nuclear plant will have no more room to store contaminated water. And no one has yet found a solution.
Fukushima, by 2022 storage space for radioactive water will run out
In three years' time, the Fukushima nuclear plant will have no more room to store contaminated water. And no one has yet found a solution.
Three years to go. After that, there will be no more room to store radioactive water at the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan. The "deadline" of 2022 was announced on 9 August by Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco), the company that operates the plant.
200 cubic metres of water a day used to cool the reactors
Eight and a half years on from the accident that, on 11 March 2011, following an earthquake and a tsunami, devastated the north-east of the Asian nation, the authorities have still been unable to decide what to do. In the wake of the catastrophe, the damaged reactors must be continuously cooled in order to prevent further radioactive leaks.
To do so, water is needed. Vast amounts of water: more than 200 cubic metres per day. Water that, once used, remains heavily contaminated despite treatment. And so it must be stored on site. The Fukushima plant has thus been transformed into a graveyard of tanks. Around a thousand have now been installed. To store more than one million tonnes of radioactive water: the equivalent of 400 Olympic swimming pools.
The problem, according to the operator Tepco, is that the capacity of the nuclear site is limited. Although the company has confirmed its intention to build more tanks, the maximum total that can be stored amounts to 1.37 million tonnes of water. And that level will be reached, precisely, in the summer of 2022.
Fishermen and Fukushima residents oppose discharge into the sea
The Tokyo government has therefore commissioned a group of experts to determine what to do. According to the team, which includes members of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the water could be injected underground. Or it could be made to evaporate into the atmosphere. But the only "realistic" solution, in their view, would be to discharge it into the sea. This is an option firmly opposed by fishermen, local residents and environmental organisations. And also by South Korea.
Japan tells diplomats no decision yet on contaminated Fukushima water reut.rs/2ZzxgVR
Chang Mari, a Greenpeace activist, explained to French radio station Rfi that "when this contaminated water and the tritium it contains enter the ocean, they will follow the ocean currents and be dispersed everywhere. It is estimated that it will take seventeen years before the radioactivity is sufficiently diluted to have fallen below safe levels. This is a problem that concerns the entire world."
The option of building more tanks also carries risks
According to the organisation, it would therefore be better to build more tanks, extending the perimeter of the nuclear site within the prefecture. This is a feasible operation given that, due to the radioactivity, the area is now largely free of economic activities (farming, livestock, industry) and is therefore capable of providing the necessary space.
The problem, however, is that the area is also highly seismic. And should the tanks be damaged by an earthquake, a new catastrophe would ensue. In other words, for the Fukushima nuclear plant, nearly a decade after the accident, a solution has still not been found.