Hello, I’m Jae Sung Lee, a contributing editor at . I’d like to introduce myself.
I’m here today to talk about the contaminated water at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan, and I think a lot of people are worried about it, and I think that worry comes from a lack of trust. It’s complicated and difficult, and it’s not transparent, so they don’t trust it.
[Nonsense] Japan’s determination to save money, the IAEA’s determination to help, and South Korea’s determination to understand. Hankyoreh TV
TEPCO’s habitual lies
The first is distrust of the Japanese government and TEPCO. TEPCO, in particular, has been found to have lied multiple times at critical junctures since the Fukushima nuclear explosion. There are too many to mention, but here are a few of the most prominent ones.
TEPCO initially claimed that its multi-nuclide removal facility, called ALPS, could remove almost all radionuclides except for tritium, which is difficult to separate from water. Only in August 2020 did TEPCO admit for the first time that even carbon-14 was not filtered out. Carbon-14 has a half-life of 5730 years and accumulates easily in living things. That means it takes 5730 years for the radiation to be halved.
[Opinion] Japan’s determination to save money, the IAEA’s determination to help, and South Korea’s determination to understand. Hankyoreh TV
In 2021, 24 out of 25 pollutant filters in the Alps were found to be damaged. Two years earlier, in 2019, the same filters were damaged, but TEPCO continued to operate without analyzing the cause or taking measures.
[Opinion] Japan’s determination to save money, the IAEA’s determination to help, and South Korea’s determination to understand. Hankyoreh TV
Japan’s Nuclear Regulatory Commission strongly criticized TEPCO’s attitude, saying it was more of a problem than the filter.
Japanese media have also criticized TEPCO. TEPCO organized an “inspection tour” to show that it was safely managing radioactive materials at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. TEPCO put a dosimeter (a radiation measurement device that detects only gamma radiation) on a bottle of contaminated water purified in the Alps, and explained that it was safe because there was no reaction. However, tritium emits beta radiation, so this dosimeter cannot detect tritium. In the case of cesium, which also emits gamma radiation, it was said that it could only be measured when the concentration was quite high. This is a criticism that they are deceiving the public by pretending that there is no radiation. The Tokyo Shimbun reported on October 3, 2022.
In addition, TEPCO denied the meltdown, or core meltdown, which is when the nuclear fuel rods melt down in the early stages of a nuclear explosion, only to admit it two months after the accident. When the plant was built, it was built at a height similar to sea level to save money, which caused a huge amount of groundwater to pour in after the accident.
[Opinion] Japan’s determination to save money, the IAEA’s determination to help, and South Korea’s determination to understand. Hankyoreh TV
Japan’s determination to save money
The decision to dump polluted water into the sea is all about money. How much money is too much?
In 2018, the secretariat of the Japan Alps Subcommittee (an advisory body under the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry) proposed five disposal methods, of which ocean discharge is the cheapest at 3.4 billion yen. 3.4 billion yen is roughly less than $34 billion. Compared to other options, such as releasing water vapor or hydrogen, burying it underground먹튀검증, or injecting it into the ground, it is 10 to 100 times cheaper.
[Commentary] Japan’s determination to save money, the IAEA’s determination to help, and South Korea’s determination to understand. Hankyoreh TV
We should be clear: Ocean dumping is not the only solution. The reason Japan wants to dump its contaminated water into the ocean despite international opposition is not because it is clean and safe, but because it is the cheapest. All this talk about how many becquerels (BQ) of strontium are a few times the standard is a moot point. The fact that Japan, the world’s third-largest economy, is doing this to the planet and its neighbors because it’s cheaper is beyond belief. It’s a selfish decision.
The IAEA decides to help
The Japanese government announced its decision to release contaminated water into the ocean on April 13, 2021, but the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has repeatedly expressed its support for Japan’s decision even before the official announcement. The organization has recommended releasing contaminated water from the Fukushima nuclear plant into the ocean since 2015, four years after the explosion. The organization is now verifying the safety of Japan’s nuclear water on behalf of the world. The South Korean government’s official position is that it is waiting for the IAEA’s verification announcement. Can we trust them?
[Commentary] Japan’s determination to save money, the IAEA’s determination to help, and Korea’s determination to understand. Hankyoreh TV
[Opinion] Japan’s determination to save money, the IAEA’s determination to help, and South Korea’s determination to understand. Hankyoreh TV
Japan’s special relationship with the IAEA is well known. It is the third-largest donor to the organization, and not only the Japanese government but also the private sector provides a lot of tangible and intangible support and sponsorship to the IAEA. Japanese Yukiya Amano served as the director general for 10 years from 2009 until his death in 2019.
But there’s an even more important, and often overlooked, fact. While the IAEA may appear to be a United Nations agency or specialized agency, it is in fact an independent organization that represents the interests of the global nuclear industry and the countries that use nuclear power. You know the phrase “nuclear mafia” – a group that represents the interests of the nuclear industry and benefits from them. The IAEA is the international nuclear mafia. The common goals of the IAEA and Japan are to treat contaminated water at a low cost and to quickly erase the Fukushima disaster from people’s memories. They are a community of interest.
The South Korean government and ruling party’s determination to understand
The same cannot be said for the South Korean government and ruling party.
In June 2021, during the Moon Jae-in administration, the ruling Democratic Party and the opposition