Kirk here with an article published in a Chinese newspaper presenting a criticism from Koichiro Matsunaga, a Minamata disease victim I have met many times. He’s quoted as saying that the Japanese government “completely failed to learn from the lessons of Minamata disease.”
https://english.news.cn/20230901/bb1d8c4a2d74470c96faf346d85fbb8d/c.html
Now, it’s not surprising that Chinese media would publish an article critical of Japan’s dump of waste water in Fukushima; after all, it’s government policy for China. But, that doesn’t mean that Mr. Matsunaga is being misquoted or that there is no reasonable basis for his concerns. A little publication called “National Geographic” (you may have heard of it) published an article in which the possibility of isotopes accumulating “in a variety of invertebrates, fish, marine mammals, and humans” was presented.
https://english.news.cn/20230901/bb1d8c4a2d74470c96faf346d85fbb8d/c.html
Such bioaccumulation is the sort of problem that occurred in Minamata.
Granted, it’s probably true that the risk of such accumulation causing serious health problems is significantly lower than was the case in Minamata. And it’s surely true that no one has proven scientifically that dangerous levels of bioaccumulation WILL occur. But, that doesn’t mean that concerns are not scientific. Fukushima is, in a sense, a huge scientific experiment. The prediction is that the dilution will be sufficient to avoid serious problems. That prediction is based on science but it’s only a prediction. Science can’t rule out the possibility of unintended consequences. Scientific experiments produce results that were not predicted in advance quite regularly. So, when the Japanese government uses the word “science” to assuage concerns, I think it’s important to remember that the science they refer to is continuing and that we won’t know the full answers to many scientific questions for many decades.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/premium/article/fukushima-japan-nuclear-wastewater-pacific-ocean
