12 years after a terrible nuclear tragedy unfolded in Japan during the 2011 tsunami, the country is still grappling with the aftermath of radioactive fallout that turned the Japanese city of Fukushima into an apocalyptic ghost town.
Over the course of a decade, about 1.34 million tonnes of radioactive water, equivalent to 500 Olympic-size swimming pools, have accumulated at the Fukushima plant since the 2011 disaster
As a part of the disaster management exercise, the contaminated water has been filtered to remove over 60 radioactive elements, However, tritium and carbon-14, two radioactive isotopes, will still be present in the water. Experts assure that these isotopes pose minimal risk if consumed in small quantities, given their low radiation levels.
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As part of this exercise, Japan is about to start something very critical but extremely worrying at the same time. The island nation is set to release the treated radioactive water from the tsunami-damaged Fukushima Daichi Nuclear Power Plant into the Pacific Ocean, starting Thursday, despite strong objections from neighbouring countries like China and Philippines.
Japan will release 1.3 million tonnes of radioactive water, equivalent to 500 Olympic-size swimming pools, into the Pacific Ocean starting from August 24. The treated water (still containing tritium and carbon-14) will be released gradually over a span of 30 years, after going filtration and dilution process.
Japanese authorities have said that this release is a crucial step in the complex process of decommissioning the Fukushima plant, which suffered severe damage in the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. Recently, the 'United Nations' nuclear watchdog also gave the green light to this plan.
The need for storage space has prompted this decision, as Japan has been collecting and storing the radioactive water in tanks for years. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced that if weather and sea conditions are suitable, the release will commence on August 24.
The Fukushima Daichi Nuclear Power Plant disaster in 2011 remains one of the worst nuclear incidents in history. Over 2000 people died due to the exposure to radiation in following years of the disaster. However, Japanese government has been doing everything in its books to make the city habitable again.
Just like Fukushima’s multiple reactor blasts, Chernobyl disaster struck when the No. 4 reactors at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, situated near the city of Pripyat in the northern Ukrainian SSR of the Soviet Union, experienced a catastrophic explosion during a scientific test in 1986. The incident took lives of over 27,000 people, turning the city of Pripyat is an inhabitable zone for probably over 100 years. Over 1 lakh people died in following years during to the exposure to radiation.