Enrique Soto/Nestor Pinacho
Scientists from the Instituto Politécnico Nacional (IPN) will take part in the International Monitoring of Tritium Presence on the Pacific Ocean Coasts. This monitoring is in response to the discharge of effluent waters from the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant, which experienced an accident triggered by an earthquake with its epicenter in the Sea of Japan and subsequently a tsunami that hit its shores in March 2011.
The team of scientists from IPN collaborating on this project will be led by Professor and Researcher at the Centro Interdisciplinario de Investigaciones y Estudios sobre Medio Ambiente y Desarrollo (CIIEMAD), Jonathan Muthuswamy Ponniah. The project, which involves monitoring Pacific waters for three years, will include researchers from 20 countries surrounding the ocean.
The researchers conducting the project come from Alaska, Australia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, the United States, the Philippines, India, England, the Fiji Islands, Japan, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Thailand, and South Africa. Muthuswamy Ponniah reported that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) authorities have approved Japan's plan for the release of effluents (1.25 million metric tons of radioactive water) from the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant. This is why, as of August 2023, the gradual discharge of the liquid into the Pacific Ocean has begun and is expected to continue for the next 30 years.
The scientist cautioned that the total liquid discharge from the nuclear plant is equivalent to 500 Olympic-sized pools of contaminated water, which contains a radioactive element known as tritium (a natural isotope of hydrogen). In high concentrations, tritium would harm marine life and human health.
"Tritium has a half-life of 12.4 years; continuous spillage at high concentrations harms marine animals, reducing fertility rates and causing damage to DNA cellular structure. There are four radioactive elements (strontium-90, cesium-137, iodine-129, and cobalt-60) that the authorities of the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant have already filtered, but there is no technology to retain tritium; it can only be diluted," he emphasized.
He explained that tritium is a byproduct generated in nuclear reactors, and its accidental release is due to improper management of this element. "Currently, the maximum tritium concentration in coastal waters off Fukushima is 0.175 Bq/L (becquerels). Japan has also set a maximum tritium concentration (1,500 Bq/L) for discharge and an annual total tritium discharge limit (22 TBq per year) (trillion becquerels)."
Jonathan Muthuswamy Ponniah detailed that the analysis of water samples must take into account the Pacific Kuroshio ocean current, which rises to Alaska and flows down to the coasts of the United States and reaches Colombia, only to rise again through Hawaii, the Philippines, and Japan.
"The amount and size of the residual water particles discharged by the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant and the speed of the current will determine how it spreads in the body of water. We expect that after six months or a year, there will be a moderate to intense accumulation in certain points of the Pacific Ocean," he assured.
The Polytechnic scientist indicated that once the international scientific community begins monitoring, two samples from different ocean areas will be collected monthly. He detailed that the liquid analysis will be conducted in specialized laboratories in India and the United States.
Muthuswamy Ponniah emphasized that the international scientific community's concern is not only the quantity of liquid being released into the ocean but also the frequency of discharges. "Resources from international organizations and institutions are being sought to finance the project," he concluded.
Nuclear fission is a process in which a neutron collides with a heavy nucleus, typically uranium-235, and splits it into fission products, a combination of many elements, along with additional neutrons. This reaction is exothermic and releases energy - nearly 200 million electronvolts that manifest as heat - which is harnessed by a coolant fluid responsible for dissipating the high temperatures. In the case of Fukushima, water was used, which, upon boiling and evaporating, created pressure to drive a turbine and generate electrical energy.
Gustavo Alonso Vargas, a doctor in Nuclear Engineering and professor at IPN, explained that if the heat is not removed, the temperature can increase exponentially, especially considering that fission is a chain reaction. If something goes wrong at any point, there is a mechanism that absorbs the neutrons created by inserting boron rods into the reactor core. In reality, with this mechanism, the reactor doesn't shut down but gradually reduces heat, which still persists.
"When the earthquake occurred in Japan, a serious situation began, and then the control rods [containing boron] automatically entered to stop the reactions, but there was residual heat. So, the emergency generators were submerged and completely useless. Nevertheless, the reactors have batteries that allow them to operate for maybe two days so that you can control the situation. But the destruction was extensive in communication routes and transmission lines, making it impossible to supply power to continue circulating water and extracting heat," Dr. Alonso Vargas pointed out.
He mentioned that the water used in nuclear plants for this cooling process passes through filters that stop all potentially radioactive particles so that when it re-enters the system, it is entirely clean. "If, for some reason, a particle of a radioactive component was released, these filters would capture it and are also monitored to prevent the re-entry of any radioactive particle."
The water discharged into the Pacific was used precisely to cool the reactors completely, but, the specialist said, it doesn't necessarily have to contain any radioactive components, specifically tritium.
Dr. Alonso Vargas recalled that radioactivity exists in nature, as there are elements that are naturally radioactive. Our bodies even contain radioactive elements, such as potassium. Concrete structures, for example, contain radon, which possesses this same quality, but at very low levels that do not pose a risk to humans.
That's why the researcher calls for not being afraid of the use of nuclear energy and pointed out that Mexico is not far from it since there are two reactors operating in Laguna Verde, Veracruz. "The first of them began operating in 1990, and the second in 1995. They have a capacity of approximately 1,600 megawatts of electricity and currently provide about 5 percent of the electricity consumed nationwide."
Selección Gaceta Politécnica #166. (September 30th, 2023). IPN Imagen Institucional: Read the full magazine in Spanish here
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