GS Paper 3
Source: The Hindu
Context: Japan is expected to start flushing 1.25 million tonnes of wastewater from the embattled Fukushima nuclear power plant into the Pacific Ocean this year, as part of its project to decommission the facility.
About Nuclear Power:
Nuclear power is electricity generated by power plants that derive their heat from fission in a nuclear reactor. Except for the reactor, which plays the role of a boiler in a fossil-fuel power plant, a nuclear power plant is similar to a large coal-fired power plant, with pumps, valves, steam generators, turbines, electric generators, condensers, and associated equipment.
What was the issue:
- In March 2011, after a magnitude 9 earthquake, a tsunami flooded the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Okuma and damaged its diesel generators. The loss of power suspended the coolant supply to reactors at the facility; the tsunami also disabled backup systems.
- The water that the Japanese government wants to flush from the plant was used to cool the reactors, plus rainwater and groundwater. It contains radioactive isotopes from the damaged reactors and is thus itself radioactive.
- Japan has said that it will release this water into the Pacific Ocean over the next 30 years.
Treated Water:
- The Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), which operates the Fukushima facility, has treated the water to remove most radioactive isotopes.
- Japanese government required the water to have 1/40th as much tritium as the permitted limit.
Issues with discharging treated water into the Pacific Ocean:
- Difficult to remove tritium from the water.
- Tritium is easily absorbed by the bodies of living creatures and rapidly distributed via blood.
- Other radionuclides include isotopes of ruthenium and plutonium, which could persist for longer in the bodies of marine creatures and on the seafloor and could not be completely removed.
Other options available with Japan:
- Store the water for longer and then discharge it – This is because tritium’s half-life – the time it takes for its quantity to be halved through radioactive decay – is 12-13 years. The quantity of any other radioactive isotopes present in the water will also decrease at this time (each isotope has its own half-life). So at the time of discharge, the water could be less radioactive.
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Q. Though nuclear energy is a source of clean energy but the vulnerabilities of nuclear reactors make them prone to disasters. Examine.
