Fukushima’s tritiated water to be dumped into sea, Tepco chief says

japantimes.co.jp ^ | JUL 14, 2017 | no byline

[ransomnote]

Despite the objections of local fishermen, the tritium-tainted water stored at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant will be dumped into the sea, a top official at Tokyo Electric says.

“The decision has already been made,” Takashi Kawamura, chairman of Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc., said in a recent interview with the media.

Tritium typically poses little risk to human health unless ingested in high amounts, and ocean discharges of diluted volumes of tritium-tainted water are a routine part of nuclear power plant operations. This is because it is a byproduct of nuclear operations but cannot be filtered out of water.

As of July 6, about 777,000 tons were stored in about 580 tanks at the Fukushima plant, which is quickly running out of space.

Tepco’s decision has local fishermen worried that their livelihood is at risk because the radioactive material will further mar public perceptions about the safety of their catches.

Kawamura’s remarks are the first by the utility’s management on the sensitive matter. Since the March 2011 meltdowns were brought under control, the Fukushima No. 1 plant has been generating tons of toxic water that has been filling up hundreds of tanks at the tsunami-hit plant.

Kawamura’s comments came at a time when a government panel is still debating how to deal with the tritium issue, including whether to dump it all into sea.

Saying its next move is contingent on the panel’s decision, Kawamura hinted in the interview that Tepco will wait for the government’s decision before actually releasing the tainted water into the sea.

“We cannot keep going if we do not have the support of the state” as well as Fukushima Prefecture and other stakeholders, he said.

[JimRed]

I assume it is too costly to process the water and harvest the tritium, even though it is one of the most valuable substances (per milligram) on Earth.

[Wuli]

I posed the question of whether or not the tainted water containing tritium could be evaporated and if so then in the process what would happen to the tritium.

One of you answered the tritium would continue with the other H2O molecules in the water vapor.

So I went looking to see if you can get tritium out from tritium tainted water. The technical answer is yes.

With an electrolysis process you can separate oxygen and hydrogen out from water molecules, returning the basic gases oxygen and hydrogen.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Separate-Hydrogen-and-Oxygen-from-Water-Through-El/

And there are processes that can separate “pure” hydrogen isotopes out from hydrogen that is in the tritium or other “non-pure” forms; producing hydrogen that is 99.99% “pure”.

http://www.powerandenergy.com/tritium-separation-nuclear-plants/

The non-technical questions are whether or not separating out the tritium is worth it on the basis of what would be the cost of the procedures for doing it?

[ransomnote]

No. Dilution is diluted pollution that becomes concentrated in the food chain. So seaweed is permeated by radioactive cesium and critters eat that, and bigger critters eat them, etc. and as you go up the food chain, radioactive wastes are concentrated in predators like tuna...and us.
The little sing song “Dilution is the solution to pollution” was never a solution, it was an evasion of responsibility.

[Chode]

which would be more dilute faster and more completely, putting it into the ocean or the air

[mabarker1]

Thank You.

Like I said, just a brain fart idea.