There’s a lot going on in the world today, but we’re setting our sights on Japan’s ‘treated’ radioactive Fukushima water release. 

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🌊 What is it? 

The Japanese government is going to start releasing treated radioactive water from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant into the Pacific Ocean today.

It’s going to take a while to get the water out though–30 years (and maybe even more).

• The first discharge will total 7.8K cubic meters and be released in a span of 17 days. 
• The water contains a radioactive isotope known as tritium. 

Japan says it’s safe. And the plan has also been approved by the International Atomic Energy Agency of the United Nations. 

• The water will contain about 190 becquerels of tritium per liter. That's lower than the World Health Organization's drinking limit of 10K becquerels per liter.

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🏊 Where’s the water from?

The treated wastewater was used to cool damaged reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. 

• In total, they plan to release 1.3M metric tons of water. (That's 500 Olympic-sized swimming pools!)

If it’s treated and diluted, why does the tritium remain? 

• It’s an isotope of hydrogen that’s difficult to separate 

"At this point science needs to step in and have a say — after all, tritium is produced in the upper atmosphere every day; in fact, one year of Fukushima water has the same amount of tritium as four hours of rainfall across the Earth." 

— Nigel Marks, Associate Professor at Curtin University, Perth, Australia. 

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🐟 But, wait

Even though there's claims that it's safe, Japan’s neighbors (and some local unions) aren’t so happy–especially China and Hong Kong.  

• China's Wang Wenbin: says the move is 'extremely selfish and irresponsible.'
• Hong Kong: has already banned some fish, leaving local restaurants bracing for impact. 
• South Korea: Though the government is supportive, local groups are mounting protests.
• Philippine fishermen: have also opposed the release, saying it might affect the country’s fishing resources. 
• US scientists: have also raised alarm bells.

A quick note. This is a developing story, but given the situation, we think it's also valuable for the SEA audience to know what's going on.