CALLING ALL FISHATARIANS - 7 JULY, 2023

An old (long retired) Nichiro gyo gyo fisherman-friend from Sendai Japan tells me this story ... the March 2011, Tepco (Tokyo Electric Power Company) Nuclear Plant (Fukushima) offshore earthquake, caused a nuclear disaster and created the wake of a major tsunami, afterwards, the destroyed plant has continued trying to cool the cores and radioactive fuel with 1.3 million cubic meters (343.4 million gallons) of contaminated water to prevent an explosive meltdown by pumping water nonstop through the three reactors to cool melted fuel that remains too hot and radioactive to remove.

About 96,000 gallons of water pass through the reactors every day (including any groundwater that seeps in), the water picks up radiation in the reactors and then is diverted into a decontamination facility, and on to over around a thousand gray, blue and white tanks around the plant, the tanks currently hold 962,000 tons (230,550,000 million gallons) of contaminated water, forcing Tepco to continuously build and install more tanks.

                                                          

The Japanese government just announced that in early July (that would be this month), that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has given Tepco a green light to start dumping the radioactive water into the Pacific ocean.

While an IAEA task force, including US and Canadian government scientists, has assured the world that the water is safe, there appears to be a major disconnect between TEPCO and others, including the PIF (the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF), a regional intergovernmental organization that has more than a dozen member countries, including, Philippines, Japan, the Cook Islands, Fiji, China, Tonga, and Vanuatu) panel of experts—who say that they’re concerned with the adequacy, accuracy, and reliability of the data backing up the decision to release the water, the fisheries cooperatives in Fukushima/Sendai and two neighboring prefectures have submitted a petition to the central Japanese government and Tepco, with 33,000 signatures in opposition to the release of the tainted water, citing the existing environmental and health consequences of Cold War-era nuclear bomb testing in the region by the likes of the U.S. and France. 

NOTE (The U.S. conducted 67 nuclear tests in the Marshall Islands between 1946 and 1957—and disposed of atomic waste in Runit Dome (also known as The Tomb), a 115-meter-diameter, 46-centimeter-thick concrete dome located on Runit Island in the Marshall Islands. It encapsulates an estimated 73,000 cubic yards of radioactive debris, including some plutonium-239, from nuclear tests conducted by the United States between 1946 and 1958. 

The dome sits roughly 25 feet above sea level on low-lying Runit Island, making it vulnerable to inundation from rising seas. While the dome was meant to be a temporary solution, it has remained for decades and is starting to show signs of old age. An investigation in 2019 found that the dome is covered in cracks that are worsening due to rising temperatures in the Pacific. Locals and scientists are warning that climate change could cause 111,000 cubic yards of debris to spill into the ocean. 

That 1946-1957 testing led not only to forced population relocation, but also to increased rates of cancers, today there is concern that the dome is leaking, and that rising sea levels will impact its structural integrity. France also conducted 193 nuclear tests from 1966 to 1996 at Moruroa and Fangataufa atolls in French Polynesia).

Though the Fukushima water has been "treated", it still contains two radioactive isotopes, hydrogen tritium and carbon 14, which cannot be separated from water, Tepco, who also faces opposition from fishermen, TEPCO admitted last year that the water in its tanks also contains "other" contaminants beside tritium... and fishermen are far from convinced that it is safe, and local fishing communities, which have been disgruntled about not being consulted on the wastewater plans, are firmly opposed to an ocean release, however well treated it may be, they fear, the irradiated water may contaminate their catch—and even if it doesn’t, public fears around catching, selling and eating tritium tainted seafood will damage their livelihoods, health, and the population.

“We cannot support the government’s stance that an ocean release is the only solution,” said Masanobu Sakamoto, president of Japan’s National Federation of Fisheries Cooperatives".

Sitting here, I can beat the subject to death with data, quotes, theories and stories, but if you are a predominately "fishatarian" person, the very ocean current routing from offshore japan clockwise to Oregon should alarm you... our North-catch Tuna, Albacore, Salmon, Cod, Halibut, Crab, Hake, Herring, Pollock (and other) would be  impacted far more heavily than anything the South Islander, or Japanese nations would catch for food.

Typically American, we will say-do-nothing, we will continue to catch, market, sell  buy, and eat Alaskan/Pacific Northwest seafood as usual... contaminants be damned.

NOTE: Neither the State of Alaska, the State of Washington, or the state of Oregon are concerned for their fisheries, although commercial fisheries are incredibly important to their economies... Alaska seafood industry alone employs over 78,000 people and is a multi-billion dollar industry. 

But.. be assured, our Federal government people are monitoring our ocean air, food,  water, fish contamination, and radiation levels daily, and have found neglible results from radiation, assuring us things are OK... ("before" this release happens), so, be happy, we have no reason to not trust our government agencies.