Fukushima: why is Japan releasing radioactive water into the Pacific?
The Briefing
00:00
Japan's Plans to Release Radioactive Wastewater Into the Ocean
Bob Richmond is a marine biologist from the University of Hawaii. He talks about Japan's plans to release radioactive wastewater into the ocean. In 2011, an undersea earthquake caused a massive tsunami off the coast of Japan. Nearly 20,000 people died and the Fukushima nuclear plant went into a series of meltdowns with radiation leaking into the atmosphere. There are now 1.3 million tons of that wastewater sitting in huge storage tanks at the plant. The operators say they're running out of space and need to get rid of it.
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