OPINION
Scaremongering about nuclear energy has become so commonplace that most of us never really question it. The very mention of “nuclear waste” and “radiation” triggers an almost visceral fear reaction.
This completely defies logic and science.
We live, after all, bathed in a sea of “background radiation”. Commonplace objects, from granite benchtops to bananas, emit discernable amounts of radiation. Taking an international flight exposes you to relatively “high” radiation doses, too.
So, why do we get so worked up about nuclear power? After all, more people were killed by the panic over the Fukushima nuclear plant disaster than by the actual meltdown.
Propaganda, basically. The green movement in particular has so successfully demonised the nuclear industry that it triggers unthinking panic. Even though more people are killed per unit of energy production by “renewables”, such as wind, hydro or biomass, than by nuclear energy.
But the anti-nuclear propagandising goes on. Especially when brute politics enters the picture.
Countries across the Asia-Pacific, egged on shamelessly by China, have attacked Japan’s release of treated wastewater from Fukushima into the Pacific.
China, which has long-standing tensions with Japan, accused Tokyo of treating the ocean as a “sewer.” China banned all Japanese seafood imports and Chinese citizens have thrown bricks and eggs at Japanese schools and consulates.
There have also been scattered protests in South Korea, although the Seoul government, which is seeking to improve ties with Japan, has not raised objections to the Fukushima plan.
Earning their pay, too, China’s lapdogs in the South Pacific are yapping fit to burst.
The leader of Solomon Islands, who has developed close ties with China, on Friday joined Beijing in denouncing Japan’s release of wastewater from the crippled Fukushima No 1 nuclear power plant.
Addressing the United Nations General Assembly, Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare said he was “appalled” at the move and warned of effects on his South Pacific archipelago.
“If this nuclear wastewater is safe, it should be stored in Japan. The fact that it’s dumped into the ocean shows that it is not safe,” he said.
That is an utterly stupid, illogical argument. The same could be said, after all, for the human shit islands like the Solomons discharge into the ocean.
And if you uncontrollably laughed at China accusing anyone else of treating the ocean as a “sewer”, you’ve good reason. The Yangtze river alone contributes some 11 per cent of the global sewage discharge into the oceans.
And it’s not just the poo of billions of Chinese that gets pumped into the oceans, either.
China’s Fuqing power plant in Fujian province releases about three times more tritium into the Pacific than the planned Fukushima discharge. Beijing appears to be basing its distinction on Japan’s discharge having originated from a nuclear disaster.
Other critics of Japan are no better.
The Kori nuclear power plant in Busan in South Korea releases a similar amount to Fuqing. South Korea has also criticised the Fukushima decision, but its government recently said it accepted the IAEA’s safety report approving the plan.
Japan Times
Of course, “but they do it, too!” isn’t a valid rebuttal. The real question is: is Japan’s release really dangerous?
As is so often the case with nuclear energy, despite sounding scary, the real risk is negligible.
Scientists have pointed out that China’s own nuclear power plants release wastewater with higher levels of tritium than that found in Fukushima’s discharge, and that the levels are all within boundaries not considered to be harmful to human health […]
Many scientists agree with the IAEA that the release will have a “negligible” radiological impact on people and the environment.
Dr David Krofcheck, a senior lecturer at the University of Auckland, said: “The release of currently filtered cooling water containing tritium atoms from the Fukushima plant will not cause physically detrimental effects. Tritium is produced naturally as part of our normal environmental background radiation, and it travels via rain or rivers into the world’s oceans.”
The Guardian
Tritium, besides occurring naturally, also decays relatively rapidly. So much so, that just a month after the discharge, none has been detected in samples of fish caught in waters near the Fukushima plant.
Tritium was not detected in the latest sample of two olive flounders caught Sunday, the Fisheries Agency said on its website. The agency has provided almost daily updates since the start of the water release, in a bid to dispel harmful rumors both domestically and internationally about its environmental impact […]
Samples of local fish have been collected at two points within a five-km radius of the discharge outlet, except during rough weather conditions, with the agency announcing its analysis results on an almost daily basis since Aug 26.
No tritium was detected in 64 fish, which included flounder and six other species, collected since Aug 8.
Japan Times
Yeah, but: ooga-booga! Radiation!
So much for following the science.