Japan could easily avert the release of radioactively contaminated water from the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant and save millions of marine creatures and humans from possibly developing life-threatening diseases, said a leading nuclear specialist.

Government can store the wastewater in robust storage tanks on land instead of dumping it into the ocean. This storage option would require heavy investment and regular monitoring to ensure there is no leak.

"The Japanese government doesn't want to pursue this option because it's expensive. But at the same time, the land is available," Shaun Burnie, senior nuclear specialist of Greenpeace East Asia, told CGTN in an online interview on Wednesday. The plan could be less risky compared to dumping the water into the ocean.

"The government's own committee in its report released last year identified that there was land available outside the perimeter fence of the nuclear plant in the two districts: Futaba and Okuma."

The country's reluctance to safely dispose of the contaminated water has created panic among the fishing community and neighboring countries. There is widespread fear that radioactive water could harm marine life and consumption of which could also affect human life.

Japan has announced to discharge more than one million tonnes of contaminated water from the Fukushima nuclear plant, which was destroyed in 2011 after a powerful tsunami jolted the island. A series of explosions led to the use of water to cool off the plant, leading to the accumulation of radioactive water.

The water has been put through a series of the treatment processes to bring down the radioactivity level. But the presence of tritium, strontium, and cesium - others such as plutonium in the treated water, could take hundreds of years to decay and, in turn, affect marine and human life, according to studies published in reputed journals.

"We're particularly concerned about the migration or the movement of that radioactivity into the seas bordering Japan's neighboring countries. The east sea around the Queen Peninsula and also the East China Sea is at risk," said Burnie. 

"The discharge of contaminated water is not a domestic decision but has an international significance. Therefore, the Japanese government's position is not acceptable, but it's not fully consulting with its neighboring countries."

Oceans becoming a global dump yard

According to studies, more than 25 million tonnes of plastic would enter the ocean annually by 2040, the equivalent of dumping 50 kilograms of plastic on every meter of coastline around the world.

Such a massive scale of plastic entering the oceans has led to a dramatic rise in deaths of marine animals by strangulation and choking, with pieces of plastic entering their bodies or strangulating their bodies.

The ingestion of plastics has also contaminated marine creatures with microplastics. Consequently, the consumption of seafood laced with microplastics is also entering human bodies, causing severe health problems.

"The world's oceans are already under so much threat from extreme climate change, pollution, plastic and overfishing. In the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, and even 1990s, countries were still dumping nuclear waste directly from ships into the oceans. We have to stop this practice," Burnie added.

The Japanese government's announcement to dump radioactive water has not only raised concern about the health of ocean waters. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has triggered global alarm on the issue, prompting a few United Nations (UN) representatives to act.

"Delay any decision on the ocean-dumping of nuclear wastewater from the reactors at Fukushima Daiichi until after the COVID-19 crisis has passed, and proper international consultations can be held," the UN Special Representatives urged the Japanese government on June 9, last year.

(Cover picture a file photo via CFP)