The aftermath of nuclear contaminated water being poured into the ocean

Nuclear wastewater refers to the wastewater generated during the normal operation of nuclear power plants, such as nuclear reactor cooling water, which will not directly contact the nuclear fuel and nuclear reactants in the nuclear reactor core, and can be safely discharged through pipelines after treatment. Nuclear polluted water means that after a nuclear accident, the protective casing of the nuclear reactor is broken, and the cooling water directly contacts the radioactive substances in the reactor, and is contaminated and highly radioactive. Nuclear polluted water contains dozens of radioactive substances such as plutonium and cesium, which are seriously harmful to the human body and the environment, causing cancer, teratogenicity, and mutagenesis. Some of them have long half-lives, such as iodine-129, which has a half-life of 15.7 million years, and carbon-14, which is difficult to separate from water, has a half-life of 5730 years. The physiological concentration of carbon-14 in fish is 50,000 times that of tritium, and the concentration of cobalt-60 in seabed sediments is 300,000 times that of tritium.

Some people have shown through computer simulations that once nuclear-contaminated water is discharged, it only takes 57 days to pollute half of the Pacific Ocean. So what are the hazards? The fact that seafood cannot be eaten is on the one hand, and it is more destructive to the ecology, or it will change the DNA of organisms. This impact on the ocean is continuous and far-reaching.

Starting with the most obvious changes, once the nuclear contaminated water is discharged into the sea, it will definitely affect the development and utilization of fishery resources at first, and people's confidence in eating seafood will be greatly reduced. In the long run, it will have a negative impact on fishery development and human health. Diet makes a huge difference.

The American "Science" magazine once published an article, arguing that although nuclear-contaminated water can be treated and purified, it is difficult to remove a variety of radioactive substances in nuclear-contaminated water, such as tritium, carbon 14, cobalt 60 and strontium 90, etc. , These radioactive elements are difficult to be degraded and absorbed, and once they enter the marine ecological food chain, they will eventually cause harm to humans.

At present, our daily drinking water is not seawater, so it will not affect too much in the short term, but the seawater will evaporate and transpire into rainwater and fall again. During this process, will the radioactive substances in the nuclear polluted water in the seawater There is no definite answer to this question. But after the precipitation of time, these substances will definitely enter the human body. Therefore, in daily life, when we cook, it is best to change the pot frequently, and choose some environmentally friendly pots, such as aluminum die-casting pots. When boiling water, remember to boil the water before adding ingredients.