Page 28 - IB December 2022

Nuclear Nuclear

Fukushima contamination a key development partner. Australia supplied much of the
This crisis dates back to March 2011, when three nuclear uranium that fuelled the Fukushima plants and is planning to
reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant were purchase nuclear submarines under the AUKUS agreement.
flooded after an offshore earthquake. A 14-metre tsunami hit But the islands region still suffers from the radioactive lega-
the coast and flooding caused massive damage to the reac- cies of 50 years of Cold War nuclear testing. Regional anti-
tors’ power supply and cooling systems. The partial meltdown nuclear sentiment is strong, and many remember that Tokyo
of the reactor cores led to extensive damage, as fuel rod has broken past pledges to consult about any plans to dump
assemblies burned through steel containment vessels and into nuclear waste.
the concrete base of the reactor buildings.
For more than a decade, the Tokyo Electric Power Company Scientists raise questions
(TEPCO) has been using water to cool the overheating still To bolster their diplomacy with Japan, the Pacific Islands
emanating from the melted fuel rods. This highly radioactive Forum Secretariat has appointed an expert panel of scientists,
cooling water is then stored in more than a thousand tanks at to seek information and inform regional policy on the project.
the site. With more than a hundred tonnes of contaminated The five-member team has extensive expertise in the
water collected every marine environment,
day, storage space is nuclear radiation,
running out. reactor engineering
In response, starting Do they have enough information? Have they done the and oceanography: Dr.
in April 2023, Japan measurements properly? Do they know if the capacity of the Ken Buesseler of the
plans to dump this filtration system will be enough for the volume of liquids, so Woods Hole Oceano-
radioactive wastewater the concentration of radionuclides would be low enough? graphic Institution; Dr.
into the Pacific Ocean How long will it take if they have to repeatedly filter the Antony Hooker, Direc-
after passage through liquids? There weren’t any clear answers to these questions. tor of the Centre for
an Advanced Liquid Radiation Research,
Processing System - Dr. Arjun Makhijani Education and Innova-
(ALPS). This filtration tion at the University
system is supposed to of Adelaide; Dr. Ferenc
remove most radioac- Dalnoki-Veress of the
tive materials from the contaminated water before it is piped James Martin Center for Non-proliferation Studies at Mon-
into the ocean. terey; Dr. Robert Richmond, Director of the Kewalo Marine
TEPCO – and Japanese taxpayers – are under massive Laboratory at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa; and Dr.
pressure because of the financial burden of decommissioning Arjun Makhijani, President of the Institute for Energy and
the stricken Fukushima reactors. Since 2011, more than 12 Environmental Research (IEER).
trillion yen (US$82 billion) has been spent for plant clean up, Throughout 2022, the expert scientific panel held a series of
decontamination of the site and compensation to people af- meetings with TEPCO and Japanese officials, receiving some
fected by the accident. The Japanese government has already data on the type of radionuclides held in storage in tanks at
provided 10.2 trillion yen (US$70 billion) in no-interest loans Fukushima. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has
to TEPCO. However in November, Japan’s Board of Audit also contributed to the debate, with Director General Rafael
revealed that repayment of these loans will be delayed, high- Grossi visiting the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant last
lighting TEPCO’s ongoing financial crisis. May, then briefing a Forum meeting in July.
Many analysts are concerned TEPCO is looking at ocean For panel member Dr. Arjun Makhijani, a former nuclear
waste dumping as the cheapest option to resolve storage engineer and IEER expert on nuclear safety, the lack of signifi-
costs for the vast amounts of water. Benshuo Yang and Haojun cant data is a crucial problem.
Xu from the Ocean University of China note: “There are also “From a scientific point of view, we as an expert panel felt
other ways to deal with the radioactive wastewater, such as there was really insufficient information to plan this huge
underground burial, controlled vapor release, injection to operation,” Makhijani told Islands Business. “We perceived
geosphere, but Japan has chosen the most cost-efficient, but early on that because most of the storage tanks had not been
most harmful one.” sampled, most of the radionuclides are not being sampled,
Work on the ocean dumping plan is rushing ahead, ignoring and so there just wasn’t enough information to proceed.”
international concern. In August, TEPCO began construction “As time went on, our reservations became stronger,” he
of infrastructure to release the treated radioactive water into said. “Do they have enough information? Have they done the
the sea, including a kilometre-long undersea tunnel and a measurements properly? Do they know if the capacity of the
complex of pipes to transfer the treated water from storage filtration system will be enough for the volume of liquids, so
tanks. the concentration of radionuclides would be low enough? How
Japan is a major donor to Pacific Island nations, and some long will it take if they have to repeatedly filter the liquids?
Forum member governments are wary of publicly condemning There weren’t any clear answers to these questions.”

28 Islands Business, December 2022