China’s total tritium emissions in 2020 were 50 times the annual limit set by Japan for diluting Fukushima contaminated water and discharging it into the ocean, as the country continues to build more nuclear power plants on its eastern coast, according to new data.
The total amount of tritium emitted by all nuclear power plants in China in 2020 was 1,054 terabecquerels (T㏃), according to the Nuclear Safety Commission’s analysis of China’s Nuclear Performance Yearbook for 2021.
That’s about 50 times more than the 22 T㏃ per year that Japan is planning to emit as part of its Fukushima contaminated water discharge.
It is also more than five times higher than South Korea’s 2022 total nuclear emissions of 214 T㏃.
Japan emitted 175 tons of carbon dioxide from nuclear power plants in 2019. Japan emitted 370 tons of tritium in 2010, before the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, but that number has since been cut by more than half due to fewer operating reactors.
China, on the other hand, has seen its tritium emissions grow rapidly, from 215 tons in 2010 to 832 tons in 2018 and 907 tons in 2019.
The United States had 1,714 tons of tritium emissions in 2019, and Canada, which operates only heavy water reactors, had 1,831 tons of tritium emissions in 2020.
China’s operating (red), under-construction (blue), and planned (yellow) nuclear power plants.
[Courtesy of the World Nuclear Association. Resale and DB prohibited].
According to the World Nuclear Association (WNA), China currently operates 55 nuclear power plants, ranking third in the world behind the United States (93) and France (56).
In addition to the 23 new reactors under construction, China also had plans to build an offshore nuclear power plant in the South China Sea, but it was recently confirmed that regulators have withheld final approval.
Most of China’s nuclear reactors are clustered on its eastern coast, which puts South Korea in its sphere of influence. New reactors currently under construction are also being built in Liaoning and Shandong provinces, which are closest to South Korea.
While tritium emissions from these reactors can enter the waters off the Korean Peninsula via ocean currents, experts say there has not yet been a meaningful change in concentration.
“Since the Fukushima accident, we have been measuring the concentration of tritium in our waters, but there has been no change,” said Jung Dong-wook안전놀이터, a professor of energy systems engineering at Chung-Ang University. “Rather, we should be interested in whether Chinese nuclear power plants are being managed safely.”
This is because the latitudes of China and the Korean Peninsula are in the prevailing westerly winds, so if a nuclear accident were to occur in China, South Korea, which lies to the west, would likely be affected by radiation.
In the event of an accident, the prevailing westerly winds would likely carry radioactive material across the border and impact the west coast.
In fact, during the controversial radiation leak from China’s Taishan Nuclear Power Plant in 2021, the possibility of radioactive materials reaching the Korean Peninsula was the subject of tense monitoring by the Nuclear Safety Commission and other related organizations.
The Korean government has established and operates a response manual in case of a large-scale radioactive material leak to neighboring countries such as China and Japan, Won explained.
Twelve ministries will jointly respond, with the Ministry of the Interior and Safety operating the Central Disaster Safety Countermeasures Center and the NIS operating the Central Accident Reconstruction Center and issuing warnings.
In addition, environmental radiation monitoring stations are operated at 231 locations nationwide in case of radiation abnormalities at home and abroad, and seawater radiation concentrations are monitored at 40 locations in nearby waters, the agency said.
However, the government has not taken a position on the expansion of nuclear power plants on China’s east coast.
Experts advised that the three countries – South Korea, China, and Japan – should promote a nuclear safety cooperation system in the East Asian region as they could affect each other in the event of a nuclear accident.
“There is a meeting of regulators between the three countries, but if it had worked properly, there would have been no noise about issues such as the discharge of contaminated water from Fukushima,” said Chung. “We need to create a stronger cooperation system.”