JAKARTA (Xinhua): The Japanese government's plan to discharge Fukushima nuclear-contaminated water into the sea may have a negative impact on the ecology of the Pacific Ocean, said an Indonesian nuclear expert.
Murdahayu Makmur (pic), a marine radioecologist with Indonesia's National Nuclear Energy Agency raised her concern about Japan's discharge plan in an interview with Xinhua recently.
"Our research plan to start this year and in the coming years is related to the issue of the release of tritium from Fukushima.We need to study that carefully, as it is important to not only rely on a single statement from Japan claiming that it is not dangerous.
"Instead, when there is a repeated release, we should assess its potential impact on Indonesia. That is why we are doing research related to ecological radioactivity starting to research the tritium that was released, to see how it impacts Indonesian sea waters, on Indonesian marine biota, which in the end we will eat, and which will reach humans.
"That is why we are also concerned about the release of tritium from Fukushima, because when it is released into sea waters, we are first concerned about seawater. We know that when it is released in Japan, the seawater will be carried by global currents to the Pacific. From the results of modelling research, after a potential release in Japan, in the first year it may spread to Japan's coastal area.
"Then in several years' time, it enters the North Pacific. And when it enters the fifth year, almost the entire Pacific will be contaminated by releases from Fukushima. Now, if the amount of radioactivity in the environment increases, it will definitely increase the radiation dose to our body. So that's the concern there.
"In total, the radiation dose received by the body is what will be our concern if additional radioactivity enters the environment. So if we look at which countries are having an obvious impact, they are the countries that are located close to the centre of the release.
"But we remember that if they are released every year, what we know is that there will definitely be accumulation. Then maybe you know about migratory fish. In the sea, there are some migratory fish such as tuna, and salmon. They don't live in one area.
"We can't control the life in the waters of the Japanese sea with radioactive content, and then when they grow up in the Pacific, we catch it in the Pacific, catch it in Indonesia, and we eat it right away.There won't be any regulatory research that will rule and check before it is eaten," said Murdahayu Makmur.
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