[SeaFood Laid Out. Photo Credit to Unsplash]

My friends and I were taking pleasure in our teacher’s random act of generosity - a free period. 

I was leisurely scrolling through my daily New York Times newsletter when the Fukushima nuclear water release immediately caught my attention. 

Over the past few days, everyone was busy worrying about the future when they would not be able to eat their favorite sushi or rolls, after Japan released Fukushima’s radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean. 

I, though, was not too cognizant of the exact release date nor the exact reason behind Japan’s decision to release the wastewater at that moment.

As I was slowly skimming through the article brief, one of my friends jumped in and started to lament upon why Japan should not be releasing the wastewater. 

Despite my limited knowledge of the situation, I found myself agreeing with my friend, as a seafood lover, the thought of consuming radioactive fish was disconcerting. 

Nevertheless, another friend decided to tell us the other side of the story and assured us that the release would not cause as much damage as many of us feared. 

Despite our strong objections, she proceeded with her argument.

According to her, the Fukushima wastewater is of such low quantity compared to the total area of the entire Pacific Ocean, making it highly unlikely for the entire ocean to become polluted.

Even if some areas were to become contaminated, it would take a significant five  years for the water to disperse throughout the  entire ocean, by which point the aftereffects would not be as drastic as my friends and I had initially believed. 

At first, I was not very persuaded by my friend since I already had my heart stoned on not  consuming any seafood going forward.

However, being someone who likes to dig into topics rather unsystematically, I decided to research more about the Fukushima nuclear water incident.

I first started to search through the causes of the incident,as every issue has its underlying reasons.. 

Only after the many searches, I finally acquainted myself with the specific details surrounding Japan’s disposal of such a significant amount of wastewater.

The Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant was ranked within the 15 largest nuclear power plants worldwide, and was serving as an energy source to Japan’s major cities, including Tokyo. 

In 2011, however, an earthquake with a calculated scale of 9.0 MW (Moment Magnitude) hit Japan, and the tsunami that occurred soon after wept over the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant. 

This, indubitably, led to catastrophic damages to the powerplant, including substantial radiation leaks that affected countless residents around the area. 

Japanese officials later reported that largely contaminated water was daily flowing into  the Pacific ocean.

To solve this issue, Japan has continuously been cooling the reactors at the Daiichi power plant and implementing procedures to remove isotopes from the contaminated water.

However, this has resulted in a massive collection of tritium water, which, due to its characteristics, is hard to separate. 

Because of the high prices it would cost to treat the water in a more “environmental” or “sustainable way,” after receiving the permission of the UN and IAEA, Japan officially started to release the wastewater into the Pacific Ocean on 24th of August. 

Although numerous protests have arisen from countries, including South Korea, many experts believe that the Fukushima release is safe.

The wastewater that has been released is theoretically safe to drink, as tritium is relatively harmless compared to other chemicals, and the “doses that people get and the doses that the ecosystem get just won't be significant.”

However, there are still critics who argue that there has been a lack of research and experimentation done regarding the release of nuclear-contaminated water and that Japan has been ignoring specified measures prior to the discharge. 

Although I now have veered off the extreme pessimistic side of the debate, there remain numerous individuals, including several of my friends, who are still thoroughly concerned and even infuriated by the situation.