Photo: EPA

At least 100 tons of radioactive water have leaked from a holding tank at the Fukushima nuclear power plant in northern Japan. The leak is the latest in the fallout at the Fukushima plant, where huge volumes of radioactive water have built up since the 2011 quake-tsunami disaster. As Majia Nadesan, Associate Dean of New College, Arizona State University, said in an interview with the Voice of Russia, in the foreseeable future leaked contaminated water will affect waters across the Pacific.

Can you comment on TEPCO statement about 100 tons of radioactive water leaking this week from the Fukushima nuclear power plant’s tank? Do you believe that it has not reached the Pacific Ocean?

That particular water may not have reached the Pacific Ocean yet, but according to TEPCO’s estimates there is at least 300-400 tons of radioactive water that is entering the ocean daily form the site. There are two distinct reasons why this is occurring. One – the storage tanks (there are approximately a 1000 tanks there) are full of very-very radioactive water, because TEPCO hasn’t been able to filter out the strontium and tritium. For example, in one of those tanks, tank H6 apparently had water in a gutter near the top of the tank that was measuring 230 million becquerels. So, that is very highly radioactive water that will eventually make it to the ocean. And there is an underground river that runs through the site at about 1000 tons a day. It is saturating the site and it means that any other leakage that occurs on the site is going to be swept with this water eventually to the ocean.

To what extent does this latest leak show the inability of TEPCO and the Government to handle the situation? And what should we be doing as the international community?

The site is becoming increasingly radioactive which means that there is an increased urgency in international cooperation. It is likely that the concentration of strontium will increase in the contaminated water that is leaking into the ocean. And the projections for contamination are based on samples in 2011 and they may gross understate the overall contamination that is occurring.

It is an international problem because there is not one ocean and all the oceans are interconnected. And TEPCO has to somehow reduce the rising radiation level that is occurring on the site, a cofferdam or some sort of structures need to be created. And it should be an international effort because it is a huge undertaking and no one nation has the resources or skills, or expertise to deal with it.

Why do you think we haven’t seen international cooperation to any serious extent? We do hear some public outcry once in a while, we hear that perhaps California is no longer safe, as far as some of the beaches, we hear that perhaps we shouldn’t be eating seafood. But don’t we see more action by the international community?

I think that is a disaster that is so unprecedented, it is beyond imagination and, therefore, it is beyond the Japanese ability to respond. I don’t believe that California beaches are unsafe to visit now, but across time we are going to have more and more concentration of radionuclides along the Pacific coast and people out there with their Geiger counters detecting higher radiation levels, they are going to demand some accountability and transparency. And eventually, we are going to get there, but obviously there is a considerable resistance. And then, there are the economic implications for seafood, for Japan’s economy. There are lots of reasons for not full transparency on this issue.

How bad is the situation with seafood?

The thing about the seafood is that not all fish is going to be contaminated. But who is to know which are contaminated and which are not, because there is no adequate testing. There needs to be widespread testing. We know which fish are bioaccumulating radio nuclides and which aren’t. Iodine 131 was detected in California kelp that came down with precipitation in 2011. And then, the currents are bringing this plum of contaminated water which is ongoing from the leaking site, and that is about to hit the California coast now and the whole Pacific coast. So, that will be concentrating and will eventually end up in all the world’s oceans.