The Tokyo Electric Power Co. went before Fukushima fishermen yesterday and asked permission to start pumping “low-level” radioactive water into the ocean where they fish. And the fishermen said, um, no. This was a surprise, apparently, with a report in the Asahi Shimbun stating that TEPCO “officials underestimated Fukushima fishermen’s anger and distrust toward the company whose failures continue to threaten their livelihoods.”
Union leaders were apparently on board with the plan, but rank-and-file fishermen wouldn’t hear of it, arguing that no matter how safe TEPCO says the procedure is, news of the move would further torpedo their sales. TEPCO will keep negotiating even as it scrambles to store the 400 tons of contaminated groundwater being produced at the former nuclear plant each day. About 280,000 tons of tainted water is sitting in tanks now, and that’s expected to double in a few years if no alternative is found, reports
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