Japan started releasing treated radioactive water from the wrecked Fukushima nuclear power plant into the Pacific Ocean on Thursday, a polarising move that prompted China to announce an immediate blanket ban on all aquatic products from Japan.
Japan exported about $600 million worth of aquatic products to China in 2022, making it the biggest market for Japanese exports, with Hong Kong second. Sales to China and Hong Kong accounted for 42% of all Japanese aquatic exports in 2022, according to government data.
China are the ultimate projectionists with this stuff. No transparency for themselves, and very quick to scream blue bloody murder about everyone else.
And that's probably the figures China allows the international community to know. If the reports on that are anything like their emissions reports, it's not even worth the time it took to generate them.
According to Tepco test results released on Thursday, that water contained about up to 63 becquerels of tritium per litre, below the World Health Organization drinking water limit of 10,000 becquerels per litre. A becquerel is a unit of radioactivity.
I live in Japan and am not at all worried about this. Maybe local seafood prices will drop. Great for us, but sucks for the fishermen and their families.
Now, if we could properly build things and not cheap out on the plans so that this doesn't happen again, that'd be great.... (also, more geothermal!)
It maintains the water release is safe, noting that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has also concluded that the impact it would have on people and the environment was "negligible."
Japan has requested that China immediately lift its import ban on aquatic products and seeks a discussion on the impact of the water release based on science, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida told reporters.
"There are not going to be any health effects… There is no scientific reason to ban imports of Japanese food whatsoever," said Geraldine Thomas, former professor of molecular pathology at London's Imperial College.
South Korean Prime Minister Han Duck-soo said import bans on Fukushima fisheries and food products will stay in place until public concerns were eased.
North Korea's foreign ministry demanded that the water discharge be immediately halted, calling it a "crime against humanity", state media reported.
A few dozen protesters gathered in front of Tepco's headquarters in Tokyo holding signs reading "Don't throw contaminated water into the sea!"
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"Lit up like a Christmas tree" - yeah, at 4 µSv per hour. So you'd have to swim there for just about 4000 hours to get the equivalent of a full body CT scan.
Because the color gradient is relative. A large enough banana would also light up. Also exposure time is another factor and this will dissipate very quickly. You can play it safe by abstain of seafood and swimming for a week.
Note that on Safecast, you can enable "Crosshair" in the hamburger menu to see the actual numbers.
The central blob area is currently around 5 μSv/hr, so if you live there for a year it's 44000 μSv, or 44 mSv. The xkcd chart says 100 mSv is the lowest one-year dose clearly linked to increased cancer risk.