SNA (Tokyo) — Despite the enormous amount that has been written about the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, the media coverage of the issue of dumping treated radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean reveals that very little has actually been learned.

On the one hand, there is the same debate as ever between those who essentially argue that radioactive contamination is nothing to worry about, and those who go to the other extreme, contending, without much basis in fact, that Japan and the world is facing an existential threat.

Rather than science, what drives the Fukushima debate is politics and a lack of trust.

The governments of both China and South Korea reacted sharply to the Suga administration’s announcement that it would be releasing Fukushima water into the Pacific Ocean from early 2023. This is water that had been used to cool the destroyed reactors at the Daiichi plant, treated through the Advanced Liquid Processing System (ALPS), and then kept stored in large tanks for years on the grounds of the facility.

China’s Foreign Ministry condemned the decision to release the water into the ocean, noting that it was being done “without fully consulting with neighboring countries and the international community.” South Korea has threatened to take legal action at the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea.

Beijing has a valid point about the Japanese government not coordinating with regional nations that also have a stake in the resources of the Pacific Ocean. However, much of its reaction is also about misdirection, hitting back at recent criticism regarding human rights in Hong Kong and Xinjiang, and posturing from an unearned vantage point of moral superiority.

All countries that have nuclear power plants, including China, release radioactive Tritium into the environment.

But Beijing and Seoul are not the only ones engaged in efforts at misdirection. The Japanese government, with a remarkable degree of success, has managed to take the media’s focus off what the real issue of concern.

Both domestic and international journalists seem to have accepted without question the Japanese government briefings about what kind of radioactive contamination remains inside the massive water tanks. They’ve been told that ALPS has been effective in removing all radioactive isotopes except the relatively benign Tritium.

Almost all of the media coverage, then, has consisted of explanations from officials and scientists that Tritium, while it cannot be said to be entirely safe for human health, poses a very remote threat. Certainly, there are a lot more contaminants in the environment that should concern us much more than Tritium diluted in the ocean.

But Tritium is not the reason to be concerned about dumping the Fukushima water into the Pacific.

Ken Buesseler, senior scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and one of the world’s leading experts on radioactive elements in the ocean, told the Shingetsu News Agency recently that what the Japanese government is saying about Tritium’s low level of threat is true, but what they are not saying is that ALPS has not removed all of the more dangerous radioactive isotopes from the water.

“What else is in the tanks is an important question before you decide what to do with it,” he observes.

Several years ago, the Japanese government quietly admitted that Caesium, Cobalt-60, and Strontium-90 can also be found in the tanks. ALPS did succeed in reducing their level of radioactivity, but some of it remains in the water that the Suga government is now proposing to dump.

Buesseler notes that Japan has not released to the international scientific community full data about how much contamination remains in the tanks, but what they have released shows wide variation in the effectiveness of ALPS in removing the more dangerous isotopes.

“They haven’t really fully released all the information,” he explains, “and they are saying, ‘trust us, we’ll remove those before it’s released.’ By their assessment, 70% of the tanks would have to be cleaned up again, many to a very high degree.”

The bottom line is that we don’t really know whether or not the Japanese government will do what it takes to remove the other radioactive isotopes before dumping water into the ocean.

The focus, therefore, should be on establishing a system of independent verification that isn’t entirely controlled by the Japanese government or international organizations that have a vested interest in protecting the nuclear industry. Scientists from China, South Korea, and elsewhere should be included in these verification efforts. They are correct to assert that they too have a stake in a healthy Pacific Ocean.

It is vital that the national and international news media not simply take the Japanese government’s word for it that everything will be conducted in a safe and responsible manner. Tokyo’s record at Fukushima is mixed at best, and the fact that the authorities are currently briefing the media that only Tritium remains in the tanks ought to be cause enough for concern.

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