Antonio Hermosin Gandul |
Okuma, Japan (EFE)
The Fukushima Daiichi plant, scene of the worst atomic accident since Chernobyl (Ukraine, 1986) triggered by the earthquake and tsunami of March 2011, thus faces a key step in its long and complex dismantling process.
The huge amount of residual liquid from the plant is treated to remove most of the radioactive materials until safe levels are guaranteed before it is discharged into the ocean, according to the Japanese authorities, who still face complaints from local communities and neighboring countries. .
road to decommissioning
The cleanup, decommissioning, and construction of new facilities at Fukushima Daiichi have made visible progress in recent years.
There are hardly any jumbles of scrap metal, rubble or other scars left from the devastating tsunami of more than 15 meters that triggered an atomic crisis that left Japan on edge more than a decade ago.
The works to reinforce the buildings of the four damaged nuclear reactors and to prepare the extraction of the atomic fuel from their interior are advancing as planned, although they face the enormous technical challenges of operating in conditions of extreme radioactivity and low visibility in their inside.
But the most notable novelty is the installation of several phases of the Advanced Liquid Processing System (ALPS) and a pumping, storage and pipeline circuit to treat and discharge the water from the plant into the sea, located on the first coastal line.
TEPCO, the operating company of the plant, is verifying the efficiency of the system to filter radioactive elements such as cesium or strontium and completing the installation of water testing devices and the network of pipes that will take it to the sea, as explained to EFE Keinichi Takahara, company spokesman.
waiting for green light
The ALPS system is capable of removing all radioactive materials from wastewater except tritium, a radioisotope of hydrogen that also occurs naturally in the atmosphere.
The purified liquid will also be mixed with seawater to further reduce its tritium concentration before discharge, to a level some forty times lower than the limit set by the Government of Japan for drinking water, and 1/7 of the maximum set. by the World Health Organization.
The system is expected to be ready by the end of the month, according to the aforementioned spokesperson, who stresses that tritium in low concentrations does not represent any risk to human health and recalls that tritiated water discharges are a common practice at nuclear power plants all over the world. the world.
This discharge method was devised by the Japanese authorities and TEPCO to dispose of the 1.32 million tons of processed water stored in more than a thousand tanks within the plant compound, where space is running out.
The contaminated liquid comes from seawater injected into the reactors for cooling and from the continuous influx of rain and underground aquifers inside the units.
The Japanese plan for the spill is being supervised by experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which, after a series of on-site inspections since last year, plans to publish a report of conclusions towards the end of the month.
It will be then, once the IAEA gives the final green light to the spill, when the Daiichi operators will open the pipelines to begin the discharge into the Pacific. The dumping process could extend to the same horizon as planned for the dismantling of the plant, between 2040 and 2050, according to TEPCO calculations.
firm detractors
Both TEPCO, the IAEA and independent laboratories around the world will analyze samples of water and marine organisms around the plant before and during the spill to verify that it remains within the standards considered safe.
Despite these guarantees, fishermen’s cooperatives on the Fukushima coast maintain their firm opposition to the spill, fearing that this will mean a new blow to the reputation of local products.
Neighbors China and South Korea, the Forum of Pacific Countries, the environmental NGO Greenpeace and some voices from the international scientific community have also expressed concern about the measure for health and environmental reasons.