CSB #6: Radioactive Water?

A satellite image of the disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant

Although the natural disasters hit Japan have passed, the country still faces the problem of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. The plant was damaged by the tsunami and earthquake, which caused a leakage of hydrogen gas and a partial meltdown of the reactors, resulting in a great amount of radiation entering the environment. As well, some of the radioactive water which was used to cool the cooling rods seeped into the ocean because of a crack in the plant caused by the earthquake. Currently, the power plant is still leaking a little radioactive material, such as radioactive iodine and cesium. Because of the large amount of the radiation which which has been and still is being released into the water, people have become worried about the drinking water in Japan. The problem is that if a human consumes radioactive material, it can be quite dangerous. One of the biggest concerns is that radioactive iodine, which can cause thyroid cancer can be particularly damaging if a young child ingests it because their thyroid glands are more sensitive than an adult's thyroid. This is why some of the cities closest to the Fukushima disaster have advised that babies under 1 year of age should drink only bottled water. Luckily, in Japan the levels of radiation in tap water have decreased significantly since a week after the disaster when the levels were the highest. Although the Japanese people are being assured that the water is "for the most part, safe for drinking,"in Tokyo, bottled water has been in very high demand. One more issue that this disaster created was the question of how to filter the radioactivity out of water to make sure it is safe. Some radioactive isotopes, or radioactive atoms of an element which have a different number of neutrons can be taken out of water, however some isotopes cannot be extracted, such as tritium. It is not easy to extract radiation from water, so the isotopes who have short half lives, such as an isotope of iodine with a half life of 8 days will not be filtered out. A half life is the amount of time that it takes for half of a sample of a radioactive material to decay. In contrast, isotopes with large half lives of several years may need to be filtered to assure safe drinking water. The issue is that the materials used to filter out the radioactivity will become radioactive after some time, and the filters will have to be disposed of properly.

An early news broadcast on the
Fukushima issue and
the radiation that escaped.

This article was very interesting to me because I have been particularly concerned about the effects of the Fukushima disaster on the environment and on living organisms. After reading this article, I became aware of how serious the issue is. I am particularly worried about the tritium that the plant has been releasing into the atmosphere because it cannot be filtered out. I think this is a very serious issue and I hope it is dealt with in a smart way to avoid damage to the environment.

I would also like to thank the Fukushima 50, the group of 50 workers who risked their lives to get the power plant under control.

Resources:

• Article: 
  • Greenemeier, Larry. "Half-Life and Death: Radioactive Drinking Water Scare in Japan Subsides, but Questions Remain." Scientific American . N.p., 1 Apr. 2011. Web. 7 Apr. 2011. <http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=fukushima-water-fallout>.
• Image:
• http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/special-reports/japan-crisis-countdown-to-nuclear-disaster/story-fn7zkbgs-1226022103258
• https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiezxUuK65FezjDSAdCsKMDNpAqTbZYlM9jj54a1pvZhtox-kCg1CI3AuYGMzSYESuf319uqynqd2tr2s6L2bf3dUJ-KjA7VnX7dbPIF98VsrJ8IRj9p6mIlBMbOvGKZHmbzRn2fG_QYw/s320/Fukushima+nuclear+power+plant+explosion.jpg