As Japan commemorates the 68th anniversary of the Hiroshima atomic bombing through peaceful demonstrations in favor of nuclear weapon elimination, the country’s Nuclear Regulatory Authority is urging the Fukushima nuclear plant to acknowledge and halt radioactive water leaks into the ocean, now citing the scenario as an “emergency.”
“We’re contaminating the ocean,” Greenpeace Nuclear Policy Analyst Jim Ruccio told Mint Press News. “From what we’re seeing at Fukushima, there is a flow of radioactive water into the ocean that has been going on for years since the accident.”
While Fukushima became a household name following the 2011 tsunami that caused the second-largest nuclear reactor disaster in history, it’s largely seen by the outside world as being no longer a threat to ocean water.
But according to Ruccio and the latest claim by the National Regulatory Authority (NRA), that’s not true.
Contaminated groundwater is rising rapidly, enough so that it’s reached levels that surpass barriers’ protection from ocean waters. According to the NRA, the contaminated water that is seeping into the ocean is well over the radioactive threshold in terms of legal and safety limits.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is claiming the radioactive release across the Pacific is of no concern to Americans at this point. Yet Ruccio claims U.S. citizens could feel an impact — if not now, then down the road.
A Stanford study found that 15 out of 15 Pacific bluefin tuna caught off the coast of California within months of the 2011 Fukushima disaster tested positive for radioactive contamination. In 2013, migrating tuna in U.S. waters were still testing positive for radioactive chemicals stemming from nuclear power plants.
The tuna tested at levels low enough for safe human consumption, according to the EPA, but Ruccio said there’s cause to be concerned for what continued contamination will mean for the future of aquatic wildlife.
“It [the concern] wasn’t so much that the EPA would stop you from eating. This [tuna tested] wasn’t the generation that grew up in the water — they just swam through it,” Ruccio said. “That’s what freaked them [scientists] out. They’re even more concerned about the next generation that’s growing up in this mess.”
Yet even with concerns regarding contamination of ocean waters and aquatic wildlife near and far, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), the owner of the Fukushima plant, is slow to respond to the Nuclear Reactor Authority’s “emergency” status.
According to The Guardian, Shinji Kinjo, head of the Nuclear Reactor Authority, said TEPCO’s response plans are temporary and are unlikely to effectively halt contamination. He referred to TEPCO’s “sense of crisis” as “weak.”
Ruccio isn’t surprised that TEPCO is allegedly dragging its feet on cleanup and prevention efforts. Considering it regulates itself, Ruccio said it seems incapable of stopping nuclear leaks — at least according to its track record.
“It’s a grand experiment over there,” Ruccio said. “They don’t know what they’re doing, they’ve never faced this before, and they’re not being as open as they should be.”
The solution?
“The only way to prevent this is to phase out nuclear reactors,” he said. “The Japanese cannot be restarting these reactors.”