Fuku Shima radioactive water in Korea

 

*Journal of the Land is content to let global readers know about Korea and interact with each other.

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Recently, many Asian countries have been in conflict due to the Fuku Shima radioactive water scandal. After the infamous Fukushima nuclear disaster, the Japanese Government decided to dispose of the radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean after filtering it through an ALPS (Advanced Liquid Processing System).

 

ALPS is a complicated process, so I will explain it in more detail. ALPS can filter 62 types of radioactive materials, such as Cesium. IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) provided information about some of the processes that ALPS utilizes. The ALPS system forces the contaminated water through many filters connected in a series of compartments. The IAEA explained the structure of the facility and detailed the adherent materials that are used to filter out contamination in each compartment. Despite these filters being advanced, they are unable to filter out the tritium pollutant. The Japanese Government and IAEA have not made all of the filtration information public about how these filter structures work and which materials are adherent. 

 

Due to the Japanese Government's ambiguity, many concerned citizens from Korea, Hongkong, China, and Russia are strongly resisting this decision by Japan. Many people are concerned that the radioactive water will affect fish, which accumulate the radioactive material in their bodies. A few days ago, a rockfish caught in front of the Fukushima Ocean was found to have radioactive materials in it that are above standard levels. Due to this phenomenon, citizens across Asia are increasingly anxious. 

 

Among scientists, there is disagreement on what is safe or not. Prof. Jung of the Nuclear Engineering program at Kyeonghee University stated that diluting radioactive water and disposing of it into the ocean is a standard and safe practice. Additionally, the amount of contaminated water is smaller than the amount that was leaked in the 2011 incident. After the Fukushima nuclear disaster, there was not a serious increase in radioactive materials present in the environment in South Korea. Meanwhile, researchers at Korea Nuclear Power Institute inspected the effect on public health and the ocean according to disposing of radioactive water. The Korean Officials reported that the Japanese Government doesn't provide sufficient evidence to support their calm that the contaminated water will have no impact on the citizens of South Korea.

 

Japan invited the inspection teams of many nations to Fukushima and let them observe the filtration process. Despite this, critics point out that Japan only checked the result of the 'purified' water using 1/4th of the radioactive water, from only one tank.

 

As many experts said, the result of discharging this Fukushima radioactive water can impact anybody. Some experts said we should focus on maneuvering to the effect of radioactive water in the ocean if the discharging is inevitable. Even if many researchers used the analysis and prediction models of the radioactive water in the ocean, it doesn't perfect enough to trust. In other words, we need accurate observations rather than imperfect predictions.