We have always known the tanks contain high levels of tritium, a radioactive form of hydrogen that is hard to remove from water during remediation efforts, because water itself contains hydrogen as well. The future of these tanks needs to be decided. This water grows in volume by roughly 100 tons each day, as groundwater still enters the buildings and mixes with the contaminated water used for cooling the damaged reactors. Instead, 10 years after this devastating event, I and other experts are worried about the safety risks posed by the 1,000 tanks that together contain more than 1 million tons of radioactive waters, sitting at the power plant only steps from the shoreline. These small leaks - which pose little risk to swimmers or surfers - aren’t what keep me up at night. The Japanese government has said in the past that everything is “under control,” but measurements from the ocean show that the reactors are still leaking radiation, via groundwater and rainwaters that flow through the reactor site. Spaces that once held housing and communities are still mostly open land, but the coastline is largely covered by bus-sized blocks of concrete meant to serve as barriers to prevent damage from any future tsunamis.īut not all aspects of the recovery are proceeding apace. The shoreline looks nothing like it did before the accident. NUCLEAR REACTOR MELTDOWN FUKUSHIMA HOW TOSociety How to detect clandestine nuclear weapons programs Although we still use nets to gather plankton and other microorganisms for testing, a simple pole will often do to catch larger fish these, I’ve been told, are now more prevalent in the nets of the local fishermen. It’s been encouraging to watch the marine life rebound without the pressure of local fisheries. I’ve been back to the region roughly once a year since the accident. I have no hesitation eating seafood when I am in the region. These, too, have recovered quickly: More than 100,000 fish have been tested since 2011, and since 2015, only a couple of fish have exceeded Japan’s strict limits for cesium. Japan shut down the local fisheries, and kept them closed for years. Still, the fish contained relatively high levels of cesium-137 and cesium-134, two products of nuclear fission, making them potentially unsafe to eat. BUESSELER © WOODS HOLE OCEANOGRAPHIC INSTITUTION Ken Buesseler with a sediment core sample collected during a 2018 expedition to study radiation from nuclear weapons testing in the Pacific.ĬREDIT: COURTESY OF K. But heroic actions on land soon reduced the flow of contaminated water to the sea, and the ocean recovered quickly: By the time we got there in June, radioactivity close to the power plant was already about 1,000 times lower than at its peak in early April. The radioactivity levels in the ocean immediately following the accident were unprecedented - millions of times higher than what was there before. Occasionally, we saw tree limbs, boxes and trash floating in the water, vestiges of a once-normal life that had been washed away. We were always at least 30 kilometers from the shoreline, but even this far away, the ocean water contained debris that had been dragged out by the monstrous wave, around which our captain had to deftly navigate. Soon after arrival, I boarded a research boat sent from Hawaii to measure radioactivity - both types and amounts - in the nearby ocean. I was standing on a spot where more than 18,000 people had died or gone missing the thought was staggering.īut I was there to work. Piles of cars, debris from houses and vegetation dotted the landscape, all awaiting disposal. Almost every building, tree or structure that had once been there was gone, reduced to soggy rubble. The damage went on and on: All I could see, for miles, was flattened Earth. I’ll never forget what it felt like when I stepped out of the taxi near the coast that had been hit by 15-meter-high waves only weeks before. NUCLEAR REACTOR MELTDOWN FUKUSHIMA SERIESMore from Reset - An ongoing series exploring how the world is navigating the coronavirus pandemic, its consequences and the way forward.
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