Disposal issues of contaminated water at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station: Thinking from the origin

At Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, contaminated water is generated by the inflow of circulating cooling water around the molten core and groundwater. The amount of contaminated water is 100-200 t/day. The contaminated water is processed by a multinuclide removal device (ALPS = advanced liquid processing system) and stored in storage tanks as so-called tritium water. TEPCO says that even if a tank is built on the site, it will be full by the end of 2022 and it will be necessary to dispose of the tritium water. The government and TEPCO call it the tritium water, but the waste water containing only tritium accounts for only 25%, and 75% of the water contains radionuclides other than tritium. The major nuclides are ¹²⁹I, ⁹⁰Sr, ¹⁰⁶Ru, etc., which have concentrations 10-20,000 times higher than the concentrations in the government's notice, and there is no agreement that they can be released into the environment, and future consensus formation will be difficult. The government and TEPCO are trying to deceive so that the waste water containing radionuclides other than tritium looks as if it were the waste water containing only tritium. It is said that the storage tank will be full by the end of 2022, but it is possible to utilize the planned sites for Units 7 and 8 reactors. Efforts should be taken over time to discuss the measures as a pollution problem and obtain social consensus without being fooled by the government and TEPCO. (A.O.)