Don’t Watch, Don’t Tell

Tokyo Electric Power Company announced that it had been leaking radioactively contaminated water from broken First Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant to the Pacific Ocean. While it noticed that continuous flow of wasted water last April, it did not report that to the public. Fishermen around the plant got furious, recognizing the concealment as a betrayal. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s promise to the world in his speech for inviting Tokyo Olympic, “Contaminated water is completely under control,” proved to be a lie as expected.

Radioactively contaminated water was leaked through four routes. Two of them, Channels C and else, led to the port for the plant, which is blocked by filter not let the water flow to the outer sea. But the other two, Channels A and K, were directly connected to the sea outside of the port. The contaminated water may actually be diluted in the ocean. However, saying nothing about it is as immoral as secretly excrete urine in a swimming pool.

The highest level of contamination was 1,010 Becquerel of cesium and 1,500 Becquerel of strontium in one litter of wasted water through channel K. Daily flow of the water amounted to 1,700 metric tons. Radiation got high in rainy day, because the rain washed contaminated roof of the building, under which broken nuclear reactor located. It becomes a hundred times higher in rainy day than ordinary level.

TEPCO knew it all. It kept on measuring radiation in the water streaming in four channels every week after April 16^th last year. It actually realized that the level was apparently high, but kept on backing it off. TEPCO insisted that the contaminated water had no impact to the outer sea. According to its own measurement, level of cesium and strontium was less than one Becquerel per litter.

Explanation of TEPCO is far from something credible. It cannot follow where the water goes after flowing out to the sea. No one can exactly tell what kind of impact the radiation will have on sea products. More than that, how people can believe in what an always-lying electric power company says. It is necessary to settle a system in which a third party monitors the management of radioactive contamination around the plant.

The national government cannot escape from responsibility. “Contaminated water is still completely blocked, because the radiation level has been low enough in the outer sea,” told Chief Cabinet Secretary, Yoshihide Suga, in his press conference. The government cannot get rid of the fantasy that they are controlling the water. It ignores that they are betraying not only the people around the plant, but the people in the world who believe in Abe’s boast.