Japan will start releasing treated and diluted radioactive wastewater from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant into the Pacific Ocean as early as Thursday — a controversial step that the government says is essential for the decades of work needed to shut down the facility that had reactor meltdowns 12 years ago.

  • steltek@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    12 years? Holy shit that’s insanely fast. Can you even go near that stuff, nevermind release it into the ocean?

    • ZapBeebz_@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      100% yes, it is safe. Tritium is a very weak beta emitter, so tritium itself cannot emit radiation strong enough to even penetrate your skin. According to the NRC, drinking water for an entire year from a well contaminated with 1600 pCi/ml of tritium (comparable to levels identified in a drinking water well after a significant tritiated water spill at a nuclear facility) results in a radiation dose of 0.3 mrem. That is 12 times lower than the dose you receive from a cross country flight (DC-LA and back). The federal limit (in the US) for radiation workers is 5 rem per year. 0.3 mrem is 0.00003 rem. This release of tritiated liquid by Japan is completely safe, and very far below any regulatory limit.