Japan's Tokyo Electric Power Company confirmed on the 7th that the nuclear-contaminated water from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant leaked outside the nuclear-contaminated water purification plant. TEPCO estimates that the total amount of nuclear-contaminated water leaked is 55 tons, which contains cesium, strontium and other radioactive substances in total or up to 22 billion becquerels.
According to Japan's Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper, the leaked water has not been treated by a purification unit, and the leak point is located outside the facility building that temporarily stores the unpurified nuclear-contaminated water. On the morning of the 7th, the workers found that the exhaust pipe located on the wall of the factory was leaking, and the water had spread to an area about 4 meters square on the iron plate on the ground. A large amount of nuclear-contaminated water may have seeped into the soil through the cracks in the iron plates. Local Fukushima television reported that the nuclear-contaminated water purification unit was being overhauled at the time of the leak, and that 10 of the 16 valves that were supposed to be closed were open. TEPCO banned people from entering the leak area on the same day, and said that it would take measures as soon as possible to find out the cause of the leak in the surrounding soil.
Zhang Yanming, a professor at the Law School of Dalian Maritime University and dean of the Huang Bohai Research Institute, told the Global Times on the 7th that the harm caused by such a large amount of radioactive material leaking into the air and soil is undoubtedly very great. In view of the previous accidents such as the contamination of the staff of the Fukushima nuclear power plant with radioactive materials, Japan** and the relevant responsible departments have repeatedly concealed the true situation of the accident, so we should continue to pay attention to this leakage.
Since August last year, when Japan** and TEPCO forcibly started the discharge of Fukushima nuclear contaminated water into the sea despite strong opposition in Japan and the international community, a number of nuclear pollution-related accidents have occurred at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station. Zhang Yanming said that the cause of the accident was even "10 of the 16 valves that should have been closed" were open, which shows that the internal management of the relevant responsible departments in Japan is disorderly and chaotic, and the process of nuclear contaminated water treatment is extremely dangerous, and the outside world has every reason to question the safety and reliability of the discharge of Fukushima nuclear contaminated water into the sea. Japan should take the accident seriously, face up to the concerns of its neighbors and the international community, and dispose of the nuclear-contaminated water in a responsible manner.
*: Global Times.
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