Japan said on Tuesday it will start releasing more than 1 million metric tonnes of treated radioactive water from the wrecked Fukushima nuclear power plant on Aug. 24, putting into motion a plan that has drawn strong criticism from China.
So I googled what the background level of Tritium is in seawater. The general consensus is that this various based upon where in the world you are, but it’s typically around 500 - 750 becquerels of tritium per m3. The amount they’re releasing is 190 becquerels of tritium per m3, or in other words, they’re reducing the average tritum radioactivity of the water…
So why is this news? Why haven’t the journalists gone, “Stupid people don’t understand how radioactivity and volumetrics work, and are complaining about the Japanese releasing water that is so highly treated it’s cleaner than the ocean average.”?
–edit–
Not going to edit the above, but @zifk@sh.itjust.works correctly pointed out I’d got my units wrong… and then they got their units wrong replying. And that’s why we need good journalism who can actually look into this fucking stuff properly, and give reasoned responses!
So I googled what the background level of Tritium is in seawater. The general consensus is that this various based upon where in the world you are, but it’s typically around 500 - 750 becquerels of tritium per m3. The amount they’re releasing is 190 becquerels of tritium per m3, or in other words, they’re reducing the average tritum radioactivity of the water…
So why is this news? Why haven’t the journalists gone, “Stupid people don’t understand how radioactivity and volumetrics work, and are complaining about the Japanese releasing water that is so highly treated it’s cleaner than the ocean average.”?
–edit– Not going to edit the above, but @zifk@sh.itjust.works correctly pointed out I’d got my units wrong… and then they got their units wrong replying. And that’s why we need good journalism who can actually look into this fucking stuff properly, and give reasoned responses!