On December 18, a reporter from Nandu learned from Japan's Tokyo Electric Power Company (hereinafter referred to as "TEPCO") that the fourth round of nuclear contaminated water discharge from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant will begin in late February 2024, and the total discharge is expected to be 7,800 tons. Recently, TEPCO has frequent nuclear pollution accidents, and Japanese domestic citizen groups have once again discharged nuclear contaminated water into the sea, and the reporter from Nandu also learned from the regular meeting of the Japanese Atomic Energy Regulation Commission that the committee still has a skeptical attitude towards the follow-up treatment of the nuclear contaminated water sputtering accident to this day.
On the 18th, the Nuclear Regulation Commission of Japan held a regular meeting.
On the 18th, a reporter from Nandu learned from TEPCO that the fourth round of nuclear contaminated water discharge from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant will begin in late February 2024, and the total discharge is expected to be 7,800 tons. The total emissions of the previous three rounds of discharge into the sea were about 230,000 tons.
At the end of the third round of discharge, TEPCO said in an interview with Japanese media that since the first round of nuclear contaminated water discharge was launched in August, the storage capacity of nuclear contaminated water in the plant area has decreased by about 16 tanks, which is more than expected. However, about 1.34 million tons of contaminated water at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant is stored in more than 1,000 storage tanks on the site. This means that the total discharge of nuclear-contaminated water currently accounts for only 16%。
Nandu previously reported that there have been frequent nuclear contamination accidents in TEPCO recently. On October 25, five staff members came into contact with radioactive water containing radioactive materials while disposing of radioactive materials from the nuclear-contaminated water at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station. The radiation level on the surface of the body of 2 people was not reduced below the safe standard value after treatment, resulting in hospitalization for many days.
On December 11, TEPCO again reported that a worker working on the decommissioning of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant Unit 2 had confirmed contamination after a nasal smear test and confirmed the possibility of internal irradiation. According to Japanese media reports, about twice the standard level of radioactive material was detected in the nostrils of the male worker in his 20s, while he was wearing a face mask and other protective equipment while working.
At present, although the man has been discharged from the hospital, TEPCO has not released the results of the analysis of his internal radiation dose value.
According to the above-mentioned accident, on the 14th, the Japanese civil society "Nuclear Power Citizens' Committee" issued a public statement that TEPCO unilaterally began the plan to discharge nuclear-contaminated water into the sea without reaching a consensus with all citizens. As for the sputtering accident of nuclear contaminated water that occurred on October 25, TEPCO did not give a full explanation on the safety of equipment design.
At the same time, at the regular meeting of the Japan Nuclear Regulation Commission held on the 18th, the members of the committee still had doubts about the follow-up treatment of the nuclear contaminated water sputtering accident. A committee member questioned that TEPCO had no reason to allow such accidents and said the committee would make a judgment on the extent to which TEPCO violated the implementation plan for the prescribed safety measures.
Written by: Nandu Xi reporter Xiao Yue.