Published on Apr.19 ,2013 : The Denki shinbun(The Electric Daily News)
Dr. Michio Ishikawa
Chief Adviser(Former President & CEO of JANTI

“It’s finally happened.” That was my reaction to the news that contaminated water had leaked at Fukushima. It was bound to happen.

Think about it. Reportedly, 400 tons of groundwater is flowing into the reactor building each day. Once in the building, all the water is deemed to be contaminated water by law.

Across the globe, release of contaminated water into the ocean and rivers is accepted as long as it is treated so that radioactivity levels are below acceptable values. However, release of treated water from Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station into the ocean has been prohibited since the accident.

Hence, water keeps accumulating. They build tanks and store, build sunken reservoirs and store. There is no end. It was bound to fail. Leak of contaminated water indicates that such ad-hoc measures would not work.

In the past two years, TEPCO has built over 900 tanks. The once expansive plant site is now filled with tanks, but that was not enough, so they built additional sunken reservoirs. That was in February.

The three reservoirs and tanks contain 276,000 tons of contaminated water at the moment. TEPCO braces to install more tanks for a total storage capacity of up to 700,000 tons according to Asahi Shimbun dated April 7, but what will they do after that?

This temporary band-aid is not a fundamental solution. It also incurs cost that is wasted. This will ultimately weigh on the shoulders of consumers. That should not be forgotten.

The solution is technically simple: the contamination should be treated properly and the water should be released into the ocean. But apparently emotional antagonism is strong; nobody mentions releasing it into the ocean.

It is common knowledge that deferring unwieldy problems for later is a feature of Japanese government and culture. But people have forgotten that this deferring culture was a factor that led to the Fukushima accident. “It’s finally leaked” were words that came from my disappointment with this country.

The knot is emotional. To only way to unravel the knot is to have dialogue. The only way is for the people who need to resolve the situation to take action.

With all due respect, we do not see the President of TEPCO taking action. It is said that you have no hope of winning with a crying baby or manor lord, so he should be playing the role of a crying baby and taking action. Indeed, you can see Prime Minister Abe running around to resolve the Futenma air base issue. It works when you yourself take action.

The same is true for the regulation authority. Safety regulation is not only about active faults. The treatment and disposition of contaminated water is a major regulatory concern. Ensuring safety of the accident site in Fukushima requires “living” regulation, and is the most significant mission that the authority is vested with.

It should stop running from reality and hiding in the woods, revise its attitude, often cited as being a mere formality and self-righteous, and take action with TEPCO to resolve the issue.

There are many stakeholders concerned with release into the ocean. The key to persuasion will be the local municipalities’ willingness to resolve the problem. I hope that a big-picture decision will be taken.

In order to achieve this, it requires government and Diet initiative as well. The “Abe-nomics” economic growth program by the Prime Minister has kicked off, and it would be a shame if he trips and falls because of this water leak issue.

Storing water is difficult. Tanks can be produced, but they are prone to rusting in outdoor areas. Problems will occur if you have many tanks.

And it is not just rust. Microorganisms flourish and create unimaginable headaches. These microorganisms are also all radioactive material. They may cause irreparable damage.

In my experience with decommissioning at JPDR, when we opened the reactor lid after shutting down the water circulation and clean-up system, blue-green algae had emerged in the reactor within only two weeks. The dose in the reactor was 10 Sieverts per hour. Microorganisms flourish in radiation environments that humans cannot survive in, as do rats.

Rust and microorganisms are both problems that occur because water is stored. The solution is to return the water to nature as soon as possible. It should be treated and released into the ocean. The only way is to develop a concrete policy and to gain the consensus of the entire nation.

Once a specific direction is decided on, it is TEPCO. They are more than capable. Motivation in the field will be heightened, and there will be less work errors. The vicious practice of deferring problems caused leakage of contaminated water.

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