Laboratory analyses of the first water samples obtained during the expedition of the research vessel Akademik Oparin showed elevated tritium levels in the main branch of the Kuroshio Current, which was to be expected based on the current pattern in the region, as well as elevated tritium levels in the area of the South Kuril Islands. Therefore, the goal of the new expedition is a more thorough study of the waters of the Kuril Islands and the southern part of the Sea of Okhotsk, which is the most important fishing zone in Russia, the press service of the V. I. Ilychev Pacific Oceanological Institute (TOI) of the Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences told TASS.
It was also reported there that on August 24, another scientific expedition of the Pacific Oceanological Institute of the Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences left Vladivostok. This time, they will collect samples of water, marine biota and bottom sediments, and also study the structure of currents and the nature of water exchange between the Sea of Okhotsk and the Pacific Ocean. Specialists will study the transfer of ocean waters through the Kuril Ridge Strait, obtain new data on gas exchange processes, biogeochemical characteristics of waters and their interannual variability in connection with global warming and increasing anthropogenic load.
The expedition will last 29 days. In addition to the staff of the Pacific Oceanological Institute of the Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, there are representatives of the Pacific Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry named after G. B. Elyakov of the Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences on board.
Back in April 2024, scientists from St. Petersburg and Vladivostok discovered the danger of radioactive contamination of the Kuril waters by waters discharged from the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant in Japan, the press service of St. Petersburg State University (SPbSU) reported.
Oceanologists from St. Petersburg State University and the Ilychev Pacific Oceanological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences have modeled the distribution routes and extent of pollution of the South Kuril fishing zone by water discharged from the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant. Scientists suggest the possibility of pollution of the coastal areas of the Kuril Islands.
In March 2011, an earthquake and tsunami caused an accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, which released radioactive contamination. To contain the spread of radioactive water into the environment, they began to accumulate technical radioactive water in large tanks near the nuclear power plant, and by 2023, more than 1.25 million tons had accumulated. In August 2023, Japan began dumping the accumulated water from the nuclear power plant into the Pacific Ocean through a special underwater tunnel. By March 2024, about 31 thousand tons of liquid had been discharged. The Japanese government and the International Atomic Energy Agency assure that this process does not threaten the environment or human health, but less than a month after the start of the dumping, information began to spread in the media about the discovery of a radioactive isotope of tritium in the waters of the Pacific Ocean. According to their data, the concentration of the isotope in the water was 10 becquerels per liter, which is 10 times higher than the standard values. Oceanologists from St. Petersburg State University and the Ilychev Pacific Oceanological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences modeled the distribution routes and the degree of pollution of the South Kuril Fishing Zone by water discharged from the Fukushima-1 NPP. Scientists assume the possibility of pollution of the waters of the South Kuril Fishing Zone (SKRZ), which is one of the most promising for fishing in Russia, and also modeled possible routes of movement of contaminated waters and the mechanisms of transfer of these contaminants.
Although, as many experts claim, the bulk of the polluted waters are picked up by the Kuroshio Current and carried away from the shores of Japan to the Pacific Ocean to the east, polluted particles can still be found near the Kuril shores. According to observations by Russian researchers, the “dirty” markers reach the borders of the South Kuril Sea Zone and are carried far to the north, and also through the Kuril Straits end up in the Sea of Okhotsk.
According to the press service, in their work, scientists used satellite monitoring data since 1993, as well as a marker tracking method that allows calculating a large number of trajectories of passive tracers simulating pollution. As a result, the study showed that the first toxic particles enter the Kuril waters already on the 13th day after the discharge of water from the NPP, their maximum number is recorded on the 25th day, after which their concentration begins to decrease, but even on the 90th day such markers still remain. The largest number of polluting particles is recorded in the period from the end of August to the end of October – this time can be the most potentially dangerous for fishing in the South Kuril fishing zone.
Tritium, the elevated levels of which were detected by Russian scientists in the area of discharges from the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant in the area of the South Kuril Islands, does not pose a threat. This was reported by the press service of the V. I. Ilychev Pacific Oceanological Institute (TOI) of the Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
“Research into the radioecological state of the marine waters of the Far East, including the area east of Japan, conducted by the Nuclear Oceanology Laboratory of the Pacific Oceanological Institute in 2022-2024 show that the level of tritium in seawater does not pose a threat. It is close to the natural background,” the scientists said.
The institute representatives noted that the tritium content after the leaks began was studied during an expedition on the research vessel Akademik Oparin in June-July 2024. Samples were taken in the Sea of Japan and the Sea of Okhotsk and in the Pacific Ocean to the east of Japan, from the east coast of Sakhalin Island in the north through the main branch of the Kuroshio Current to subtropical waters in the south. Earlier, laboratory analyses of the first water samples obtained during the expedition to the main branch of the Kuroshio Current showed elevated tritium content, but a detailed analysis showed that the concentrations were close to the natural background of the environment.
“More than 120 tons of seawater samples have been collected and prepared for subsequent analysis, not only from the ocean surface, but also from various depths. In addition to tritium, the content of other radioisotopes will also be assessed – cesium, strontium, beryllium, radium, lead. Samples of plankton and marine biota have been taken,” the report notes.
Another assessment of the danger is that even small doses of this radioactive element are capable of causing gene mutations and cancer, infecting fish and other sea creatures, which are then consumed by humans, said the former head of the inspection for supervision of nuclear and radiation safety of the USSR State Nuclear Supervision Authority, Doctor of Technical Sciences, Professor Vladimir Kuznetsov.
“Tritium is a product of any nuclear power plant. The main thing that interests us is that it is a heavy isotope of hydrogen, it is a beta emitter that intensively penetrates into various environments in water. Through water, it is transmitted to fish and other marine organisms, which then become contaminated. There is a huge amount of tritium in the water that has accumulated in Fukushima over 12 years,” Kuznetsov said.
The scientist noted that Japan was offered installations capable of effectively purifying water containing tritium, but the country’s authorities abandoned the project, considering it too expensive.
The scientist cited the example of South Korea, Canada, and Romania – the stations there operate with reactors of the same type as Fukushima.
“But the Japanese turned out to be barbarians in terms of their attitude towards their population and environmental protection,” Kuznetsov said.
The professor explained that the consequences of tritium entering the body – gene mutations and oncology – were reliably established back in the 1930s.
“I was in Japan in 2012, conducting a radiation and ecological survey with a group in the contaminated area. I was also in Chernobyl 1.5 months after the accident. But I have never seen such chaos as in Japan: there was no radiation control, people walked freely from the contaminated zone to the clean one, without changing clothes, without shoe covers. This is Japan, this is their mentality,” Kuznetsov said.
The risk of developing cancer increases more than fivefold even with a low concentration of tritium in water, Sergei Mukhametov, a senior lecturer at the Department of Oceanology of the Faculty of Geography at Moscow State University named after M. V. Lomonosov, told RIA Novosti.
According to the expert, this is the conclusion reached by American scientists David Kocher and Owen Hoffman from the Center for Risk Analysis. The results of their study showed that the average risk of skin cancer for both sexes when tritium enters drinking water at the maximum permissible concentration (in the US – 740 becquerels per liter) over an average lifespan (80 years for women and 75 for men) is 0.0003. At the same time, the risk of cancer over a lifetime with daily consumption of 2 liters of drinking water over an average lifespan excluding tritium and cases of skin cancer is 0.000056. Thus, the risk increases more than fivefold.
Mukhametov also noted that the maximum permissible concentrations of tritium in drinking water vary significantly in different countries. According to the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission website, Australia has a limit of 76,103 becquerels per liter of water, Finland – 30,000, Switzerland – 10,000, Russia – 7,700, and Canada – 7,000.
“Such a spread is because scientists do not know exactly how dangerous it is. It is clear that if you introduce a dose that is a thousand times greater, about 40 million becquerels per liter, then a person will die within about five days. But no one has observed the effect of tritium on a person during his life, if he receives small doses into the body. They simply did not have time to analyze it all, and who would conduct experiments on a person,” the expert explained.
Alla Udalova, professor at the Obninsk Institute of Atomic Energy of the National Research Nuclear University MEPhI, in an interview with Rossiyskaya Gazeta, noted that tritium in very small quantities in one form or another exists in nature, including in groundwater. At the same time, it is considered a soft radioisotope, its radiation is not as dangerous as from other sources. However, everything depends on the quantity. If this element enters the body in acceptable concentrations, there will be no harm, but in high concentrations, the consequences can be very serious.
“Concerns about the possible accumulation of “atomic” tritium in products, especially in fish, are hardly justified. The reason is the specificity of this isotope. The fact is that it belongs to the alkaline group, which is characterized by uniform distribution in the body and rapid excretion from it. For example, potassium is a component of all cells. It easily enters the body and is just as easily excreted, practically without accumulating. Most likely, the situation is similar with tritium,” Udalova said.