VLADIVOSTOK, August 28. /TASS/. Japanese authorities will not allow scientific ships of the Russian Academy of Sciences to conduct research on the process of discharging low-radioactive water from the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant, academician Valentin Sergiyenko told reporters.
On August 24, the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) reported that Japanese specialists had begun to discharge into the sea the first batch of water purified of radioactive substances from the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant. Data from the measurements showed that the treated water prepared for discharge was sufficiently diluted with seawater, and its tritium content was calculated to be 952 times less than the acceptable safety standard set by the International Commission on Radiological Protection and the Japanese government.
"We did this kind of [research] work right after the accident, we did several expeditions, but the Japanese restricted access to their economic zone. They won't let our ships in, they won't give us permission to do research. That's why we work at a distance of 150-300 kilometers from Fukushima, we only see traces. <...> Information is limited, they [the Japanese] don't give us anything," Sergiyenko said.
According to the scholar, it is important to know how the water discharged from the plant is diluted. If it is discharged all at once, local radiation levels could be exceeded many times over.
"If you dump the water here in the Fukushima area at the same time, it means that this limited area of water will have terabecquerels of radioactivity. And the permissible dose for fish, for marine biota, is 100 becquerels. If all this is discharged locally here, it will definitely be in algae, in marine hydrobionts," the academician explained.