You can’t show any skin. You have to wear a mask, double socks, special shoes… “The radiation comes from the ground; “You have to avoid touching it,” says Takahara Kenichi, one of the risk managers at the Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear power plant on Japan’s east coast, which suffered a very serious Level 7 accident following a tsunami in 2011. the highest in international comparison. In August of this year, these facilities, which have been storing contaminated water since the incident, began pouring the liquid into the Pacific Ocean, which has been treated but contains small amounts of tritium, a radioactive isotope. The drainage planned for this year ends on November 19th: three lots with a total of more than 23,000 tons of water. The operation, which will last until 2025, is supported by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) but has involved several vetoed countries and regions – China, Russia, South Korea, Taiwan, Macau, Hong Kong and French Polynesia The import of Japanese products such as fish and cosmetics has caused tensions between Japan and its neighbors.
China, which leads the critical group, believes the decision is “irresponsible and selfish” and means “the sea is being treated like a landfill.” On August 24, the day the oil spill began, Beijing imposed an embargo on all of its neighbor’s fishing products. A major blow to the Japanese industry: China is the main importer of Japanese fish (particularly scallops, tuna, sea urchins, snappers and sea cucumbers), a market that accounted for 87 billion yen (600 million euros) in 2022, according to the Japanese Ministry of Economy . Just a month after the ban, sales were down 90%. Russia agreed with China’s argument and also exercised veto power. It also accused Tokyo of a “lack of transparency.” Although the Tokyo government and the IAEA publish data on the oil spill and their conclusions, this is not enough for Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zajárova. “[Japón] He failed to fulfill this obligation; “It is not a guarantee of the absence of a threat,” he explained a few weeks ago.
Protesters in Seoul on November 2 demand a halt to the discharge of treated water from Fukushima. Eugene Hoshiko (AP/La presse)
The Japanese government sees these vetoes, which it says “lack a scientific basis,” as another part of a hybrid strategy. “It aims to destabilize Japanese society; drive a wedge between Tokyo and strategic neighbors like South Korea or Taiwan; or divert attention from issues such as the slowdown in China’s economy,” said Maiko Ichihara, a researcher who has analyzed Beijing’s influence in Japan. The disinformation and manipulation expert goes back to 2021 – when the dumping plan was announced – the beginning of “a narrative campaign whose main actor is the government of China.” “There are actors who have tried to control the story,” notes he clear.
To do this, they used fake photos that show a change in the color of the sea water; publications that speak of very high levels of radiation in shellfish and fish, although the analyzes do not show this; or information about the bribes the Japanese executive branch paid to the IAEA to obtain approval for its plan. Ichihara cites some media outlets such as Record China as key factors in this strategy. “They have constantly written controversial articles about relations between Japan and South Korea,” says the professor at the Institute of International Relations at Hitotsubashi University, before recalling the divisive protests against the plan in Hong Kong and, above all, in Seoul, where they were numerous.
The Fukushima nuclear accident was the second worst in history after Chernobyl in 1986. On that fateful March 11, 2011, an earthquake in the Pacific triggered a tsunami that hit and damaged the power plant managed by the private company TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Company): four of the six reactors were damaged, there were several explosions of hydrogen and nuclear fusions . The scale of the event forced the establishment of a large exclusion zone and the evacuation of almost half a million people.
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Reactor one of the Fukushima nuclear power plant, which suffered the most damage from the tsunami, was discovered because work cannot be carried out near it due to radiation, photographed on October 18. Pablo Leon
After more than twelve years of dismantling work on the facilities, three of the damaged reactors were sealed; The other – number 1 – is a mass of dilapidated and corroded iron. “It is the most contaminated area of the plant,” emphasizes Kenichi before the installation, “it is humanly impossible to work there.” Until a few weeks ago, you had to go in wearing a PPE suit. Now it’s enough to take the precautionary measures mentioned above and use a dosimeter that measures the absorbed radiation and warns if the limit value is exceeded. “Bee, bee. Pi, pi,” after less than 10 minutes near the most damaged unit, the device warns, “We have to go.”
The nuclear debacle occurred amid a violent tidal wave with storms and large amounts of water vapor. Such a quantity of liquid in a radioactively contaminated area made it necessary to establish water flow control as a priority. The reactors were thus emptied; to channel rain intrusion; and to insulate the substrate by injecting gases at very low temperatures. All liquid was collected and stored in tanks. “The ones we use now have a capacity of 1,000 tons,” explains the TEPCO technician, pointing to several rows of tanks. In August of this year, before the discharge began, they stored around 1.4 million tons of contaminated liquid; enough to fill about 540 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
Storage tanks for treated water from which all radioactive components except tritium have been removed. Pablo Leon
In addition, on average over the last year, the plant continues to generate about 90 tons of radioactive water per day (due to rain, condensation…). This means that the volume of liquid continues to increase, which leads to storage problems. In 2021, the Japanese government – led almost continuously since 1955 by the conservative LDP (Liberal Democratic Party) – announced that it would release the water into the ocean after treating and diluting it. The discharges, monitored by the IAEA and carried out through a pipeline draining into Japanese territorial waters one kilometer from the coast, will extend until 2025.
Previously, they went through the so-called “Advanced Liquid Processing System”. [ALPS, por sus siglas en inglés]“. A treatment that eliminates radioactive isotopes such as iodine or cesium-137, among others. Despite this complex cleaning process, one component remains in the water: tritium (³H), a radioactive molecule that cannot be removed and also occurs in nature. Therefore, the water is diluted after the application of the ALPS: “The discharged water has a tritium concentration 50 times lower than the limit for human consumption set by the World Health Organization,” emphasizes TEPCO.
The facilities where radioactive water purification is carried out at the Fukushima power plant, where pollutants such as cesium137 or radioactive iodine are removed via a system of 35 interconnected tanks. Pablo Leon
After reviewing the Japanese plan, the IAEA also committed to conducting independent sampling of the region’s water, marine environment and wildlife. In fact, during EL PAÍS’s visit to the facility – at the invitation of the Japanese government – a group of experts from the organization collected samples in mid-October. So far, all tests have come to the conclusion that the agreed values are being adhered to. Tests on agricultural and fishery products commissioned by Fukushima Prefecture also confirm that there is no danger. More than 270,000 samples taken between March 2011 and the same month in 2023 were examined.
At the Soma fish market, 50 kilometers from the nuclear complex, a small laboratory has been analyzing fish and shellfish samples brought by fishermen since June 2012. Several boats have just arrived: sole and some puffy puffer fish are still swimming in the baskets before the auction for their sale begins. “The analyzes are carried out first thing in the morning and late in the afternoon; Different species are randomly selected and the results are available in 30 minutes or less,” said Kyoichi Kamiyama, an employee at the Fukushima Prefectural Fisheries Resource Center.
An IAEA technician takes samples from a fish shell on October 19 at the port of Hisanohama, 35 km south of the nuclear power plant. Eugene Hoshiko (AP/La presse)
Still, “people are afraid,” complains a resident of Tomioka, one of the towns closest to the power plant, just 12 kilometers away. This city was deserted for 12 years and was located within the exclusion zone, which covered an area of 1,150 square kilometers due to the spread of radiation released after the incident and forced the evacuation of 470,000 people. Currently, 300 square kilometers remain inaccessible and around 30,000 people are still displaced, most of them (90%) from Fukushima Prefecture.
After demolishing buildings, washing away vegetation and removing kilograms of contaminated soil, Tomioka reopened its streets in April this year. In many corners of the quiet city there are radioactivity measuring devices to inform citizens. “I don’t like water. It worries me and, moreover, it creates a bad image for us. That makes everything complicated,” the aforementioned neighbor continues in Spanish. He prefers not to reveal his name: “There are few of us here; “We all know each other.”
A radioactivity meter in one of the streets of Tomioka town, which has been in the exclusion zone for more than 12 years and reopened in April this year. Pablo Leon
Previously this city had about 20,000 inhabitants; Supported by a public funding program, around 2,000 people have now returned to the city to resettle it. “My family, like my husband’s, came from the area,” says Maya Edo, a 41-year-old editor and one of the returnees to Tomioka. In 2011, her parents were evacuated from there and although they have rebuilt their lives elsewhere, they are considering returning now that their daughter has settled back in. Edo speaks from a charming, newly built cafeteria. “My high school was right here,” he explains, trying in vain to remember the layout of the building, the classrooms, or the schoolyard. “The whole city has changed a lot,” he adds. Why am I returning? “I don’t know. Maybe in memory of my grandparents. When they reopened the city, I felt some kind of call to come back, get involved and do something to bring it back to life.”
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