--- title: "Japan Dumping Radioactive Water From Fukushima Into Ocean This Week" description: "Lefty Loosey Despite significant opposition from its neighboring countries, Japan is about to start releasing contaminated water from its Fukushima nuclear plant into the Pacific Ocean later this week. Enough water to fill 500 Olympic swimming pools has accumulated at the site of the 2011 disaster, the BBC reports, prompting authorities to find ways to […]" date: "2023-08-22" modified: "2023-08-22" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/japan-dumping-radioactive-water-fukushima-ocean-this-week" categories: - "Science & Energy" tags: - "Fukushima" - "Japan" - "pacific ocean" - "radioactive water" - "the digest" --- # Japan Dumping Radioactive Water From Fukushima Into Ocean This Week ![Despite opposition, Japan will start releasing radioactive water from its Fukushima nuclear plant into the Pacific Ocean this week.]() *\Image: Getty / Futurism\* ## Lefty Loosey Despite significant opposition from its neighboring countries, Japan is about to start releasing contaminated water from the 2011 Fukushima nuclear plant disaster into the Pacific Ocean later this week. Enough water to fill 500 Olympic swimming pools has accumulated at the site of the accident, thanks to the plant operator Tepco's efforts to cool the plant's fuel rods, the [*BBC* reports](), prompting authorities to find ways to safely dispose of it. The [solution](): slowly filtering and diluting the radioactive water over 30 years as it's released into the ocean, something that will keep harmful substances and their impact on wildlife to a minimum, authorities say. Perhaps unsurprisingly, these plans have [garnered plenty of scrutiny](). Protesters in Japan, including local fishermen, have long argued that the resulting radiation could hurt ocean ecosystems — though experts, to be fair, say the plan is safe. ## Not a Sewer Japan's neighboring countries have also chimed in, decrying these plans. China, in particular, has responded with anger. "The ocean sustains humanity," Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin [told the *Financial Times*](). "It is not a sewer for Japan’s nuclear-contaminated water. Japan is putting its selfish interests above the long-term wellbeing of the entire humanity." South Korea has [already banned]() the import of seafood from the waters surrounding the Fukushima plant. ## Negligible Impact Last month, the United Nations' nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, [signed off]() on the plans, concluding that if released slowly into the ocean, the water would have a "negligible radiological impact to people and the environment." But it's not entirely without risk. Officials at plant operator Tepco have also since admitted that traces of radioactive isotopes, including tritium and carbon-14, could still be present in the water, as they're extremely difficult to remove. However, as the *BBC* notes, other nuclear plants already release wastewater with higher levels of tritium. "As long as the discharge is carried out as planned, radiation doses to people will be vanishingly small — more than a thousand times less than doses we all get from natural radiation every year," Jim Smith, environmental science professor at the University of Portsmouth, told the *BBC*. **More on Fukushima:** *[UN Approves Japan's Plan to Dump Fukushima Water Into Pacific Ocean]()* ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()