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Well, it's a mixture of water and radioactive isotopes. The million tons of water isn't a danger to the Pacific Ocean, but the stuff it's mixed with may or may
by dmurray 5y ago
Well, it's a mixture of water and radioactive isotopes. The million tons of water isn't a danger to the Pacific Ocean, but the stuff it's mixed with may or may not be.
If the title had said "a million tons of tritium" it would be wrong, but it didn't.
- belorn 5y agoThe information is wrong. The article is talking about waste water that has a total of 2.1 g of pure tritium diluted in 860,000 m3 of stored water. The legal limit for tritium emissions for a nuclear plant in the US is a total of 0.2kg per year according to NRC. A metric ton is 1000kg. In order to get a million tons you would need 5x10^9 nuclear plants all releasing their maximum amount of tritium. If the amount would then be as diluted as in the article, ie 860,000 tons water for every 2.1 gram, you would then need 4*10^18 tons of water. There isn't enough water on earth to do so.
- walnutclosefarm 5y agoActually, just to be correct, the tritium in question is not mixed in with the water. It's part of the water.