Tests of seawater near Japan’s Fukushima nuclear power plant have not detected any radioactivity, the environment ministry said on Sunday (Aug 27), days after authorities began discharging into the sea treated water used to cool damaged reactors.

Japan started releasing water from the wrecked Fukushima plant into the Pacific Ocean on Thursday, sparking protests within Japan and neighbouring countries, in particular China, which banned aquatic product imports from Japan.

Japan and scientific organisations say the water is safe after being filtered to remove most radioactive elements except for tritium, a radioactive isotope of hydrogen.

  • chaogomu@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    You do realize that the ocean has been full of radioactive material for billions of years, right? Uranium oxide is water-soluble. You can literally pull uranium out of ocean water if you know the right chemistry.

    Hell, you’re currently being exposed to ionizing radiation right this second. So am I, so is every one. Go outside, pick up a handful of dirt and there will be trace amounts of uranium, and likely some thorium. Have a radon detector in your basement? That’s radioactive, and comes from the natural decay of uranium.

    Do you drink well water? Water-soluble oxides of uranium. Which is why damp basements accumulate radon.

    The detected levels of radiation in this discharge water are actually lower than standard background radiation from all the uranium that’s literally everywhere.