Petition to Stop Japan Dumping Radioactive Water in Ocean Gains Over 183,000 Signatures

反对日本向海洋倾倒放射性污水的请愿书获得了超过183000个签名

BY ED BROWNE ON 4/12/21 AT 8:07 AM EDT

埃德·布朗于美国东部时间4月12日上午8:07发布

Japan is expected to announce plans to release hundreds of thousands of tons of leftover cooling water from the Fukushima nuclear disaster into the Pacific Ocean, prompting almost 200,000 people to sign a Greenpeace petition opposing them.

日本预计将宣布计划向太平洋释放福岛核灾难中数十万吨剩余的冷却水，这促使近20万人签署了绿色和平组织反对他们的请愿书。

Japanese officials are expected to formally announce their decision tomorrow, according to Japanese news outlet NHK. The country's Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga is understood to be in support of the move.

据日本新闻机构NHK报道，日本官员预计将于明天正式宣布他们的决定。据悉，日本首相菅义伟支持这一举措。

The government has said it cannot put a decision off any longer because water storage capacity at the plant is beginning to run out. Newsweek has contacted the Japanese government for comment.

政府表示，不能再推迟做出决定了，因为该厂的储水能力即将耗尽。《新闻周刊》已联系日本政府要求置评。

The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant was the scene of one of the worst nuclear accidents in history when an earthquake and subsequent tsunami damaged it in 2011, knocking out crucial cooling systems.

2011年，福岛第一核电站发生了史上最严重的核事故之一，当时一场地震和随后的海啸破坏了该核电站，摧毁了关键的冷却系统。

The nuclear reactor units ended up partially melting due to excessive heat. Using water, engineers carried out months of cooling efforts by circulating it around the units and storing it in tanks afterwards.

由于过热，核反应堆单元最终部分熔化。工程师们利用水进行了数月的冷却工作，将水在机组周围循环，然后将水储存在水箱中。

The question of what to do with the water has been a topic of discussion for several years.

如何处理这些水的问题已经讨论了好几年了。

TEPCO, the Japanese electric utility company which operates the Fukushima Daiichi plant, is handling more than 1.2 million tons of radioactive water in around 1,000 storage tanks on site.

负责福岛第一核电站运营的日本电力公司东京电力公司(TEPCO)正在处理现场大约1000个储存罐中120多万吨的放射性水。

The water has been treated via a filtration process to remove contaminants and radioactivity, but one type of radioactive contaminant called tritium remains.

这些水经过过滤处理，去除污染物和放射性物质，但一种叫做氚的放射性污染物仍然存在。

Tritium tends not to be harmful externally but can be a hazard if it is ingested into the body, such as through drinking.

氚一般不会对外界造成伤害，但如果通过饮用等方式被人体吸收，就会产生危害。

A 2020 study published in the journal Nature states that tritium "requires large quantities to deliver significant radiation doses" and that environmental data on tritium after the Fukushima accident is limited as other contaminants were prioritized.

《自然》(Nature)杂志发表的一项2020年的研究称，氚“需要足够大量才能产生显著的辐射剂量”，而福岛事故后，由于其他污染物被优先考虑，有关氚的环境数据有限。

According to NHK, which cited unnamed sources, the plan would be for the government to continue reducing the radiation to below nationally-accepted levels before releasing the water in around two years' time.

日本放送协会（NHK）援引匿名消息人士的话说，计划是政府继续将辐射降低到国家可接受的水平以下，然后在大约两年后释放核废水。

But Japan's fishing industry, as well as environmentalists, are in opposition to discharging the water.

但是日本的捕鱼业和环保人士反对排放核废水。

Greenpeace has launched a petition on the matter and as of Monday it had received around 184,000 signatures, the group said.

绿色和平组织就此发起了一项请愿活动，该组织表示，截至周一，他们已经收到了大约18.4万个签名。

Kazue Suzuki from the climate change and energy division of Greenpeace Japan, said the government should instead vote to continue storing the water until technology improves.

来自日本绿色和平组织气候变化和能源部门的和江铃木说，政府应该投票决定继续储存核废水，直到技术得到改进。

Suzuki said in a statement: "The current regulation does not limit the total amount of radioactivity to be released and allows releasing too much only if it is diluted. Some of the radionuclides to be released have a lifespan of thousands or tens of thousands of years. The decision to release the contaminated water into the ocean will leave huge troubles for the future."

铃木在一份声明中说：“目前的规定并没有限制放射物质的总量，只有在被稀释的情况下才允许释放过多的放射性物质。释放的一些放射性核素的寿命可达数千年或数万年。向海洋排放污染水的决定将给未来留下巨大的麻烦。”


Contaminated water storage tanks at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, February 2016. The tanks contain huge amounts of water, and the government is due to decide what to do with it shortly.CHRISTOPHER FURLONG/GETT

2016年2月，福岛第一核电站被污染的水箱。水箱里装着大量的水，政府将很快决定如何处理这些水。（上图）