Friday, August 18, 2017
By Dahr Jamail,
Truthout
| Report
When Japan's Fukushima Daiichi
nuclear plant suffered a triple-core meltdown in March 2011 as the result of
devastating earthquake, most people had no idea this was only the beginning of
a nuclear disaster that has arguably become the single worst industrial
accident in human history.
Keeping the three core
meltdowns cool has been an ongoing challenge that has yet to be met. As fresh
water is pumped over the cores, it is then stored on site in massive tanks. The
Tokyo Electric Power company (TEPCO), the operator of the plant, then has to
figure out what to do with that water.
Recently, TEPCO announced that
it would dump 770,000 tons of radioactive tritium water into the Pacific Ocean.
The announcement infuriated local fishermen and environmental groups across
Japan. According to Mozhgan Savabieasfahani, an environmental toxicologist and
winner of the 2015 Rachel Carson prize, their outrage and alarm is not without
merit.
"The release of thousands
of tons of radioactive tritium by a giant utility company into our aquatic and
natural environments is a blood-chilling prospect," Savabieasfahani told
Truthout.
She questions why there is not
more outrage from those in the Japanese government who are responsible for
safeguarding the health and wellbeing of the general public.
"Where are the defenders
of our public's health?" she asked. "If they could pull the plug out
of their mouth, they could tell us that tritium is a toxic radioactive isotope
of hydrogen, and that, once released, tritium cannot be removed from the
environment. Let that sink in."
"The Decision Has Already
Been Made"
Takashi Kawamura, TEPCO's
chairman, when asked about the decision to introduce this vast amount of
radioactive water into the ocean, initially responded, "The decision has already been
made."
While he quickly softened the
statement, he has not stated that the action will not occur.
Meanwhile, the chairman of the
Japanese Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA), Shunichi Tanaka, has claimed that tritium is of little danger to humans and supports TEPCO's plans to dump the water into the ocean.
This claim, however, is
vehemently disputed by toxicologists and nuclear experts with more background
in toxicology than Tanaka.
M.V. Ramana is the Simons
Chair in Disarmament, Global and Human Security at the Liu Institute for
Global Issues at the University of British Columbia in Canada, and is also
a contributing author to the World Nuclear Industry Status Report for
2016. He is critical of Prime Minister Shinzō Abe's administration's mishandling
of Fukushima.
"The proposed release of
radioactive, contaminated water from Fukushima against the wishes of the local
residents, especially fishermen, represents yet another violation of people's
rights to a clean environment and a decent livelihood so as to protect the
financial interests of TEPCO," Ramana told Truthout.
Tanaka argued that dumping the
radioactive water is safe because that level of tritium is unable to penetrate
plastic wrapping. However, Ramana said that justification misses the point.
"NRA Chairman Tanaka is
correct when he says that tritium is 'so weak in its radioactivity it
won't penetrate plastic wrapping,' but that is irrelevant if the material
is ingested," Ramana said. "Because the tritium that is released will
be in the form of tritiated water, it can be easily absorbed by the body as it
is chemically identical to water."
According to Ramana, a special
concern with tritiated water is that, when ingested by pregnant women, it can
pass through the placenta and affect the fetus.
"During this stage, the
developing organism (the embryo and the fetus) is highly
radiosensitive," he added.
And this is only one of the
many ways in which tritium is dangerous for humans, at even the lowest levels.
Fukushima Is an "Ongoing
Disaster"
Dr. Bruno Chareyron, an expert
in radiation effects, won The Nuclear-Free Future Award in 2016. He is the director
of the CRIIRAD lab (Commission de Recherche et d’Information Indépendentes sur
la RADioactivité), founded in 1986, which not only monitors the environment for
radiation contamination, but trains people to investigate radioactivity as
well.
Chareyron was blunt with
Truthout about what is happening at Fukushima.
"It is important to
understand that the Fukushima disaster is actually an ongoing disaster,"
he said. "The radioactive particles deposited on the ground in March 2011
are still there, and in Japan, millions of people are living on territories
that received significant contamination."
According to Chareyron, even
territories located more than 200 kilometers away from the damaged nuclear
reactors received significant fallout depending on wind direction, rainfall
and/or snow.
And it's not just Fukushima
prefecture that is affected by radioactive contamination.
"The Japanese authorities
have launched a huge program of decontamination on a territory of about 2,400
square kilometers," Chareyron explained. "It is estimated that every
day about 15,000 people are involved in this program. The ground and most
contaminated tree leaves are removed only in the immediate vicinity of the
houses, but a comprehensive decontamination is impossible."
Cesium 137 is a radioactive
isotope that is one of the more common byproducts from the formation of
Uranium-235 in nuclear reactors.
"Six years later, the
radioactive Cesium 137 has decreased by only 14 percent," Chareyron said.
Chareyron said the powerful
gamma rays emitted by Cesium 137 could travel dozens of meters in the air.
Therefore, the contaminated soil and trees located around the houses, which
have not been removed, are still irradiating the inhabitants.
To underscore these points,
his lab produced a video that shows the power of gamma radiation emitted from
outside a building in Fukushima city in May 2011. That video can be viewed here,
as can another
clip showing the contamination inside Fukushima city in June 2012.
"In the contaminated
territories, people are also exposed to an internal contamination through the
ingestion of food and inhalation of radioactive dust suspended by the
wind," Chareyron said. "For example the forest fire that lasted
several days in April and May 2017 in the contaminated forest of Mont Jûman has
dispersed radioactive dust all around."
He also reminded us not to
forget the workers in the nuclear plant who were exposed to radiation. This occurred
even while managing the radioactive waste that continues to be generated by the
disaster, as well as the management of the Fukushima Daiichi damaged reactors.
Chareyron said that, according
to TEPCO, in May 2017, 8,862 workers were monitored for radiation exposure at
the nuclear plant (of which 7,899 are contractors).
The most elevated individual
external dose was 7.36 milliSievert in one month.
By comparison, the annual dose
limit for a member of the public is 1 milliSievert per year.
"A Carcinogen, a
Teratogen and a Mutagen All Rolled Into One"
Hydrogen is the most abundant
element in living cells.
"Once toxic tritium makes
it into the environment, it will bind anywhere hydrogen binds,"
Savabieasfahani said. "Imagine a toxic particle that can freely travel
through our cells and bind to every molecule of life in our bodies and cause
damage. Tritium is a carcinogen, a teratogen and a mutagen all rolled into
one."
According to Savabieasfahani,
there is no safe threshold level for tritium, as it can harm living organisms
no matter how low its concentrations.
"Tritium can cause
tumors, cancer, genetic defects, developmental abnormalities and adverse
reproductive effects," she explained. "Tritiated water is associated
with significantly decreased weight of brain and genital tract organs in mice
and can cause irreversible loss of female germ cells -- eggs -- in both mice
and monkeys even at low concentrations. This we know."
Even at very low
concentrations, tritium causes cell death, mutations and chromosome breaks. Per
dose, it is twice as damaging to our genetic makeup as x-rays and gamma rays
"Once tritium travels up
the food chain it becomes even more dangerous to life," Savabieasfahani
said. "When incorporated into animal or plant tissue and digested by
humans, tritium can stay in the body for 10 years or more. Internally exposed
individuals can expect to be chronically exposed to the toxic impacts of this
carcinogen for years to come."
And for infants and growing
children, tritium exposure is even more dangerous.
Savabieasfahani explained that
qualitative, quantitative, physiological and epidemiological evidence show that
the internal uptake of tritium is 10 times more likely to cause cancer and
neurological deficit in infants and children than in adults.
"Infants' and children's
higher vulnerability to tritium is attributed to their increased gut absorption
and their smaller body mass, as well as their heightened sensitivity to
radioactive exposures," she added. "We have already observed that
childhood cancers and leukemia are 22 percent higher near nuclear reactors, and
where tritium has leaked into the environment."
Citing numerous studies --
including research from the University of Florida and the journal Radiation Protection Dosimetry -- Savabieasfahani stated
emphatically that it is not enough to store that knowledge in "dusty
library stacks."
"That knowledge must be
taken down from the shelf and broadcast now, before 777,000 tons of radioactive
water hit us in the face," she said.
Surfing in Tritium?
Truthout recently reported on how the Japanese government, by
allowing TEPCO to dump tritium and then encouraging people who fled the
Fukushima contamination zone to return to their homes, is essentially planning
to expose both its own people and 2020 Tokyo Olympians to Fukushima radiation.
Furthermore, the International
Olympic Commission is also working to paint conditions as "normal" --
it even has plans for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics to hold baseball and
softball games at Fukushima.
Why are so many powerful
entities engaging in this bizarre and harmful attempt at normalization?
Chareyron believes that a
nuclear disaster like the one affecting the TEPCO nuclear reactors at the
Fukushima Daiichi site simply cannot be "handled properly," because
highly radioactive material that should usually be kept confined inside the
core of nuclear reactors has been dispersed in the environment.
"Therefore, the Japanese
government authorities and TEPCO both try to influence the general public and
the workers so that a situation of exposure to radiation that would usually be
considered as unacceptable becomes progressively 'accepted,'" he said.
"For example, the annual dose limit of 1 milliSievert for the public has
been changed into 20 milliSievert, the annual dose limit for the workers has
been increased to 100 milliSievert for those exposed to 'especially high
radiation,' contaminated water is still leaking into the sea, and the
authorities are planning to re-use contaminated material for road construction
in order to lower the cost of radioactive solid waste management."
Chareyron also said that
corium, a highly radioactive material, accumulated at the bottom of reactors
one and three and is still to this day has not been precisely located, and
nobody yet knows when it will even be possible to dismantle the reactors.
Chareyron believes both the
Japanese government and TEPCO face enormous difficulties, because of the fact
that it is impossible to properly decontaminate the affected territories.
Furthermore, Fukushima prefecture residents are more or less "forced"
to come back to their houses while the radiation is still high, since the
government announced it will cut housing subsidies that were being provided to
any of them not under mandatory evacuation orders.
He also shed light on how this
massive dumping of radioactive tritium water is not likely to be the last time
this occurs. Chareyron said that TEPCO still must pump out on a daily basis
massive amounts of heavily contaminated water that isused to cool the reactor
cores, and this water is also already contaminating the water table with
radiation. He also expressed concerns around the lack of monitoring of how the
general population in the region is being affected by the contaminated water.
Chareyron emphasizes that both
the Japanese government and TEPCO have been fundamentally dishonest with the
public.
"Since the beginning of
the crisis, the Japanese authorities and TEPCO have been lying to the people
about the adverse impact of radiation on health and the extension of the
disaster," he said.
Savabieasfahani noted that
TEPCO has been rewarded with trillions of yen in government subsidies since the
2011 nuclear disaster began. That disaster was preceded by TEPCO's false
reporting of technical data to authorities on hundreds of occasions, and by the
2008 shutdown of one of its nuclear power plants following an earthquake.
Instead of doling out future
subsidies, Savabieasfahani said, the government should be holding the company
accountable.
"A far better outcome
would be to force TEPCO's shareholders, starting with the largest, to pay for
cleaning up the damage their company has caused," she said. "Let it
be a warning to everyone trying to make similar profits, worldwide, from
similar nuclear power ventures. The insane alternative of dumping all that
radiation into the seas, and letting TEPCO shareholders keep the trillions of
yen they have made from poisoning and lying to the public, is simply
unspeakable."
Savabieasfahani wonders why so
many academics and universities are silent on these matters.
"From Los Angeles to
Tokyo, the universities are loaded with environmental scientists, public health
researchers, epidemiologists, medical school professors, and soon they will be
drinking tritium along with everyone else," she said.
On July 27, the
journal Science of the Total Environment published a peer-reviewed article about radioactively hot particles being
detected in soil and dust across northern Japan.
The article details the
analysis of radioactively hot particles collected in Japan following the
Fukushima Daiichi
meltdowns.
Based on 415 samples of
radioactive dust from Japan, the USA and Canada, the study identified a statistically meaningful number of
samples that were considerably more radioactive than current radiation models
anticipated. If ingested, these more radioactive particles increase the risk of
suffering a future health problem.
However, despite substantial
scientific research that demonstrates the ongoing radioactive danger created by
the Fukushima disaster, Savabieasfahani notes that -- much like the government
and the industry -- most academics have chosen not to speak out about the
contamination.
"Don't these academics
have anything to teach us, before their fish, seaweed, plants, crops and
children are poisoned with 770,000 tons of radioactive water?" Savabieasfahani
asked. "The silence of the entire academic world, as these proposals to
dump tritium in our laps are being favorably discussed in the media, teaches a
very different lesson: to just drink it up and let the shareholders make
another buck."
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