Interview: Expert warns of health risks by nuclear-contaminated water if dumped into ocean

KIEV, April 25 (Xinhua) -- A Ukrainian nuclear expert has sounded alarms over the health risks posed to generations by the nuclear-contaminated water that Japan plans to dump into the ocean.

"Dumping 1.2 million tons (of radioactive wastewater) into the ocean is barbaric ... I know firsthand how badly it affects people," Olga Kosharna, member of the Board of the State Inspectorate for Nuclear Regulation of Ukraine, told Xinhua in an interview on Friday.

The wastewater that Japan plans to release into the sea contains tritium -- a radioactive byproduct of nuclear reactors, which could pose health risks even for the next generations, the expert warned.

"Tritium is a very dangerous element for the human body ... Its half-life is 12.5 years (Editor: which means half of the radioactive atoms will decay over that amount of time, a repeated cycle which literally lasts forever), and it causes internal irradiation of cells, which leads to irreversible consequences primarily for human embryos and pregnant women," Kosharna said.

The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has stored 1.25 million tons of water in tanks after the 2011 accident. The seawater was used to cool the reactors, which melted down following the earthquake and tsunami. The plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company, known as TEPCO, is expected to run out of space to store the nuclear-contaminated water by summer 2022.

"Japan is running out of storage tanks. It is clear that the half-life (of tritium) is approaching, but there is a lot of technology," said the expert.

She said that Canada and Russia have offered Japan tritium removal technology which meets safety standards, but Tokyo declined the assistance.

Speaking about Japan's way to deal with the Fukushima accident, Kosharna said she was unpleasantly surprised at the cleanup efforts, which led to hydrogen explosions at the plant releasing radioactive materials into the atmosphere.

"I have followed the development of the Fukushima accident. I have always been a fan of Japanese technology, but when I saw that they let the accident transform into a hydrogen explosion, I was shocked," Kosharna said, noting that Japan was unprepared for the Fukushima accident.

"It turned out that at that time there was no scientific institution in Japan that would study the distribution of radionuclides in different environments," the expert said.

Professional incompetence was behind the devastating consequences of the disaster at the Fukushima plant, Kosharna said.

"The head of the TEPCO company, which operates the plant, was (just) an effective manager. He was just an investment banker, a person who has no working experience in the sector. He did not understand physical processes," she said.