A government inspection team traveling to Japan to inspect contaminated water at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is scheduled to visit the plant on the 23rd, but a Korean nuclear expert pointed out that “we should go in and look for settled water, sediment, and rusty water, not water brought by TEPCO or its subcontractors.”
Earlier in the day, Seo Kyun-ryul, professor emeritus of nuclear engineering at Seoul National University, said in an interview on the SBS radio program “Kim Tae-hyun’s Political Show,” “The Japanese government nailed it (the South Korean inspection) as a ‘briefing session’. It’s not an inspection, it’s not a verification,” he said, adding, “It’s a five-day, six-night (schedule), but if you take out the front and back, it’s almost a day or two. It’s impossible to do an inspection or verification in that time.”
Storage tanks holding contaminated water are seen at the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan in this February 2017 photo. AP Yonhap
In response to the government’s assurances that it “already has samples of the contaminated water and is analyzing them,” Prof. Seo said, “It’s just water that TEPCO dumped with its subcontractors.” “What kind of water is this? “It’s probably clean water,” he said, adding, “We have to go in and find the rusted out, 10-year-old water, not the water that TEPCO or the contractor brought in. The sediment, the silt, the rusty water that’s really down there. It’s not the clean tank in front, it’s what’s behind.”
Seo also questioned the IAEA’s sampling. He believes that the IAEA did not take the samples themselves, but rather received them from the Japanese. “It’s a national top-secret facility, and there are trade secrets, so we can’t get in,” he said, “and they’re just looking over their shoulder at the water coming out. They’ve been trying to discharge (the contaminated water)스포츠토토 into the Pacific Ocean since 2015, so it’s kind of a charade.”
Yoo Kook-hee, head of Japan’s Fukushima contaminated water inspection team, waits for an elevator in the lobby as he visits Japan’s foreign ministry to attend a technical meeting with TEPCO officials to confirm inspection items at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant on Nov. 22. Yonhap
The performance of the ALPS, which removes radionuclides from contaminated water, should also be questioned, according to Seo. The ALPS is a kind of “filter,” but the amount of contaminated water it has to treat has been too large, and its performance may have deteriorated due to the accumulation of debris and other debris. “The key is how much the filter function has decreased,” says Prof. Seo, “Is this treated water or dirty water? It’s more like dirty water.”