Associate Professor Nigel Marks, Physics & Astronomy researcher at Curtin University, stated: “Temporary storage tanks are bursting at the seams, and radioactive water has to go somewhere. By diluting the tritium/water mixture with regular sea water, the level of radioactivity can be reduced to safe levels comparable to those associated with radiation from granite rocks, bore water, medical imaging, airline travel and certain types of food”.

Professor Brendan Kennedy from the School of Chemistry at the University of Sydney said: “The release of wastewater from the Fukushima reactors is an unfortunate necessity. This water contains tritium – a radioactive form of hydrogen that has a half-life of around 12.5 years – that was produced in the reactors. The volume of contaminated water makes long-term storage like this impractical. Disposal, via release into the nearby ocean – is the only viable option for the volume of material. Once diluted in the ocean, tritium will not present a hazard to marine life”.

At the same time, the debate is far more complex, since there are many different interests at stake, such as human rights and political, economic, and environmental issues. 

As a matter of example, although the tritium and other radioactive elements would not be significantly dangerous after the filtering and diluting processes, the message people are receiving is quite different. Indeed, trade union fishermen associations are pointing out the economic crisis they will have to face if the Japanese plan was to be performed. Fishermen are reasonably concerned about the possibility their products would no longer be attractive because of negative marketing generated from the release, thus facing increasing competition from other exporting countries. Consumers’ concerns may be ill-founded, since fish coming from Fukushima is constantly analysed and its trade is subjected to extremely strict conditions: the maximum amount of radioactive elements that can be contained in food set by the EU is 1.250 becquerel per kilogram; instead, the products from Fukushima have a limit of 50 becquerel per kilogram. 

Asian countries did not wait long to react to the plan’s approval: China defined the choice as “extremely irresponsible” and a potential damage for other nations; Taiwan and South Korea are worried as well. Because of the concerns and the opposition of local communities, neighbouring countries, and fisheries associations, Baskut Tuncak, former UN Special Rapporteur on toxics and human rights, stated: “It is their human right to an environment that allows for living a life in dignity, to enjoy their culture, and to not be exposed deliberately to additional radioactive contamination. Those rights should be fully respected and not be disregarded by the government in Tokyo”.