Fukushima wastewater.

[Workingman]

There are reports that Japan has approved the release of water used to cool the plant after the earthquake and tsunami of 2011.

The media describes it as 1 million tonnes of contaminated and radioactive water equivalent to 500 Olympic sized swimming pools dumped in the sea. There, that's scared you all. Job done.

Very little is said about what it actually means.

It is treated water with most of the strong radiating isotopes removed - they will be vitrified and buried deep underground. The water will be diluted so that the remaining isotope, tritium, is below that set for drinking water, and the process will take two decades. Tritium, btw, is a beta emitter and its radiated electron can be stopped by a few centimetres of water - it has a half-life of 12.5 years. The volume of the oceans is thought to be 1.332 billion cubic kilometres. I have no idea what that is in swimming pools, but a few more than 500.

The amount of radiation about to be released is a minuscule, tiny fraction of that released by the nuclear tests carried out in the Pacific by the US, UK and France when developing nuclear weapons. It is also lower than that found in some water courses in the UK due to Radon in places such as Devon and Cornwall, the upper Pennines, and the Grampians and Aberdeenshire.

But never mind facts. It is contaminated and radioactive so it's going to kill us all.

[victor]

It's a good job you do not own a newspaper Suff -you would go bust reporting facts instead of dramatic headlines

[Workingman]

It's a good job you do not own a newspaper Suff -you would go bust reporting facts instead of dramatic headlines

It wasn't Suff, Vic, it was WM.

The WM Herald is a much lighter read then the Suff Tribune.

[victor]

Whoops sorry WM

[Suff]

No it was not the Suff tribune which does tend to be a bit heavy....

I was going to write almost exactly the same thing as WM. This move from Japan is a very necessary step in the total cleanup of the reactors.

What nobody has mentioned and it is important as it deflates all the hype. Everyone here has been in close contact with tritium. It is the substance that they put on watch dials to make them fluoresce.

It is also, per kg, by far the most expensive material on the planet and a key ingredient of fusion bombs. You can guarantee that if it was possible to remove it they would have.

Every time something nuclear like this comes up the press hype it for all it is worth. Because the general public do not have the knowledge to judge if the article is hype or not.

As WM says, people scared, job done.

Where is the reporting of the fact that Chernobyl happened because they were playing with it "to see how it would react". Or that there was a massive job of stabilisation at the end of the 90's otherwise it would have gone critical again.

No not enough fear factor because they would have to explain stuff.