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Fukushima was a massive nuclear power plant on the eastern coast of Japan. Construction of the plant began in 1967, and it was first operational on March 26, 1971. Tragically, in 2011 a massive earthquake, named The Great East Japan Earthquake struck nearly a hundred miles north of the nuclear power plant. The earthquake lasted for six minutes, and peaked at a 9 on the Richter scale, making it the fourth most powerful earthquake in the world since records started being taken in 1990.

While the earthquake itself caused no damage to Fukushima, the nearby areas were decimated, and the earthquake caused a gargantuan tsunami to form. As soon as the earthquake was detected, the power plant shut down the nuclear reactors and activated an emergency system of diesel generators in order to keep coolant pumping around the reactor cores. However, nothing could have prepared the workers at Fukushima for the tsunami, rising to over 14 meters high, that crashed over the emergency seawalls and flooded the emergency generators. With nothing to keep the reactor cores cool, over the next few days they had partially melted, causing a nuclear meltdown (see figure one). Nuclear waste began to seep into the atmosphere surrounding the plant and into the pacific ocean, which caused a massive state of panic.

Today, cleanup is still in progress. Recently, the Japanese government approved the release of wastewater from the disaster that had been severely diluted back into the ocean. Wastewater is water that was used to cool the reactor cores during the state of emergency. Supposedly, the water is safer and contains less contaminants than the average drinking water in Japan. However, while the government approves, neighboring countries like China and Korea disapprove of the action, as they consider it unsafe and too risky to proceed with. A lot of Japan’s locals also disapprove of the action, because they fear it will contaminate the ocean and harm the fish, which is a massive supply of food for Japanese natives, along with being a large factor in Japan’s economy.

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After years of research, the Japanese government determined that the only two effective methods for releasing the wastewater from the reactor was through vaporization or discharge into the sea. The company that owns the nuclear plant, called Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) is using a massively powerful filtration system called ALPS, which stands for Advanced Liquid Processing System to ensure that the melted uranium fuel rods stay cool by pumping in new water, and extracting tons of the contaminated water. The ALPS filtration system also filters out most of the radioactive isotopes in the wastewater that is pumped out of the reactor. The most concerning radioactive element that cannot be filtered out of the wastewater by the ALPS system is tritium, which is the radioactive isotope of hydrogen. Tritium is formed by gaining two neutrons, whereas regular hydrogen has none. This makes tritium unstable and therefore radioactive, but not dangerous. Tritium is produced naturally in the atmosphere from interactions of cosmic rays with gases in the upper atmosphere. However, the unnatural production of tritium is a byproduct of nuclear reactors.

Tritium is used on a daily basis to produce luminescence in glow-in-the-dark lighting like in figures five and six. The most commonly found form of tritium is in tritiated water. This occurs when a tritium atom replaces one of the hydrogen atoms in water, forming T2O, also known as 3H2O, instead of H2O, as shown in figure two.  for While this water is considered contaminated, it is still safe to consume. Since tritium is a weak form of beta-radiation, it does not cause a severe detrimental effect to the consumer, unless a large quantity is consumed. Tritium consumed by humans also only has a half-life of 7-10 days, as shown in figures three and four, which makes it very difficult to have enough tritium in one's body to cause a negative health effect. Tritium does not produce enough energy to penetrate the human skin, so it is rare that it causes a health risk. However, studies conducted by American Science Magazine have shown that consuming tritium does slightly increase the risk of cancer, but the risk is small enough that it is not considered to be a problem.

The Japanese government has taken these factors into consideration, and they have concluded that releasing water contaminated with tritium into the ocean will dilute the solution enough so that it will not cause a harmful effect to any ocean wildlife or human life. They say that the release process will meet international standards, and that it has been approved and endorsed by the International Atomic Energy Agency. The Japanese government also says that the dilution process will reduce the amount of tritium in the water to a level considered safe by the World Health Organization's standards for drinking water.

While all of the data points to the plan being safe, there is still controversy among the public and neighboring countries. Both China and the Koreas have expressed their concerns with the plan, and they do not want Japan to proceed with the plan of releasing the tritiated water into the ocean. The concern among the public comes with the idea of polluting the ocean and/or killing  the fish, which is a huge source of food for the people of Japan.

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Japan is facing the problem of finding a way to filter the radioactive elements out of the wastewater from the site of the Fukushima nuclear disaster. A partial solution was made possible by the Advanced Liquid Processing System (ALPS). However, the ALPS does not filter out tritium, which is the radioactive isotope of hydrogen. Since the ALPS can not filter out the tritium left in the wastewater, the Japanese government wants to dump the tritiated water into the ocean. However, this is where the problem arises. From a scientific standpoint, it should be completely safe to release the tritiated water into the ocean, as tritium is not harmful to humans unless consumed in an extremely large quantity, and it has a relatively short halflife in the human body of 7-12 years. Also, when the tritiated water is combined with the immense amount of water in the ocean, it will be so diluted that the amount of tritium in the total water is so miniscule that it is hard to even count. These three factors make it very unlikely that the tritiated water would have any real harmful effect on those who are exposed to it.

While it has been scientifically proven that releasing the tritiated water into the ocean will not have a detrimental effect on the environment or the people of Japan, there is still a large moral issue with doing this. The people of Japan are worried about the possible unforeseen side effects that could occur as a result of consuming the tritiated water, and of what it will do to the fish. To try to quell these concerns, the Japanese government released a cartoon, as shown in figure seven, to convince the people of Japan that consuming tritiated water is safe, but this only caused more backlash among the people.

The people of Japan are not the only ones concerned about the release of the wastewater. Both China and the Koreas have expressed their concerns with the method. However, if the water is not deposited into the ocean, there is no really good place to store it. This shows us that Japan is facing a dilemma where they have to choose between morality and practicality.

It is unknown whether or not this method will be a success or not, because it has not happened yet, but it is expected to be successful. If it is not successful, then Japan will be facing one of the biggest problems ever, since they will never be able to remove all the tritium from the ocean. If the radioactivity affects the population of Japan, this could be a catastrophic failure that leads to the death of many people. It will also affect everyone, since the ocean will be contaminated, and this contamination will likely spread globally. However, the volume of water in the ocean compared to the volume of water being deposited in it will most likely dilute the tritized water, and there will be no problem. This is probably why so many people are concerned with Japan’s idea. However, it is unlikely that the method will fail. This will cause the method to be a great success, and it will be a breakthrough in scientific technology. Japan will be able to safely dispose of the wastewater, and the ALPS filter will be proven to be very successful. This will also allow Japan to treat and clean the reactor in the best and safest way possible. Japan has already been approved to proceed with dumping the wastewater in the ocean, so they will likely do it in the near future. Hopefully, the outcome is successful, otherwise we will be dealing with an irreversible and catastrophic tragedy that will affect everyone around the world.

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Al Jazeera. (2021, April 13). Explainer: The toxic water at Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant. Environment News | Al Jazeera. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/4/13/explainer-the-toxic-water-at-japans-fukushima-nuclear-plant.

Arnoux, -R. (2016, February 1). Tritium: Changing lead into gold. ITER. https://www.iter.org/mag/8/56.

BBC. (2021, April 13). Fukushima: Japan approves releasing wastewater into ocean. BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-56728068.

Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission. (n.d.). Tritium Fact Sheet. Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission: Tritium Fact Sheet. https://nuclearsafety.gc.ca/eng/pdfs/Fact_Sheets/January-2013-Fact-Sheet-Tritium_e.pdf.

Dennis NormileApr. 13, 2021, Robert ServiceMay. 18, 2021, Kelly ServickMay. 13, 2021, Sofia MoutinhoApr. 7, 2021, Sofia MoutinhoMar. 31, 2021, & Sofia MoutinhoMar. 26, 2021. (2021, April 14). Japan plans to release Fukushima's wastewater into the ocean. Science. https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2021/04/japan-plans-release-fukushima-s-contaminated-water-ocean.

Duke Energy | Nuclear Information Center. (2016, October 6). All Posts. Duke Energy | Nuclear Information Center. https://nuclear.duke-energy.com/posts?t=Nuclear%2BEnergy&page=7.

Encyclopædia Britannica, inc. (n.d.). Half-life. Encyclopedia Britannica.    https://www.britannica.com/science/half-life-radioactivity.

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This is a picture of the Fukushima nuclear power plant during the meltdown.

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The chemical structure of a tritium atom

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This is a simple graph that depicts the basic decay of tritium in mass over years. It shows us that the half life is 12.32 years, that the average rate of decay is 5.5% per year. Figure four: This is a similar graph to the one depicted in figure three, but it deals with concentration, therefore making the units pCi/L over years.

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This is a similar graph to the one depicted in figure three, but it deals with concentration, therefore making the units pCi/L over years.

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This image shows vials of tritium in the darkness, depicting their self-luminescence.

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This is an exit sign filled with tritium. This is an example of a  practical use of tritium.

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This is a cartoon that the Japanese government released in order to try to prove to the people of Japan that consuming tritium will not be harmful to them.