In case you haven't heard, the United States has decided not to interfere with Japan opening the floodgates at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (FDNPP) and dump contaminated radioactive waste water into the Pacific Ocean, which over a period of time will make its way to Hawaiian waters and more than likely to ALL Pacific coastal communities, just like the floating debris from the 2011 Tsunami that landed on our shorefronts. There are more than 1000 tanks at FDNCPP (see photo above) that contain contaminated water and the impact of releasing more that 1.2 million tons of this radioactive water into the Ocean can't be known. Despite an attempt to remove more than 62 contaminates from the water, no decontamination system can remove 100% of all radioactive waste. Tritium is notoriously difficult to remove because it is a radioactive form of hydrogen that is part of the water molecule itself.   However, this story is not only about the Tritium, which the Japanese government would like you to believe, but what else is in the tanks. In 2018, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) released data detailing the amounts of nine more dangerous isotopes, such as Ruthenium-106, Cobalt-60, and Strontium-90. The concentrations of these radioactive isotopes are highly variable from tank to tank. By TEPCO's own assessments, more than 70% of the tanks would need secondary treatments to reduce concentrations below that required by law to release. These radioactive isotopes behave differently than Tritium in the ocean and are more readily incorporated into marine biota or seafloor sediments. As a result, Tritium's rapid dispersion and dilution can't be used to assess the fate of these other potential contaminants. To study the consequences of the 1000 tanks released into the ocean, a full accounting needs to take place after the secondary treatment to the radioactive waste water as to what isotopes are left in each tank. This includes the volume, not just of the nine isotopes currently reported, but for a larger suite of possible contaminates. Given the short half-lives of the isotopes known in the tanks, more storage time would help reduce the risk. The lack of space is the reason for the urgency in ocean release, which could be alleviated if tanks were built and waste water stored just outside the boundaries of the current FDNPP facility. Public fears should not be dismissed because these decisions may have NEGATIVE impacts on local fisheries along with Hawaii fisheries. South Korea, China, Thailand, and Russia have voiced their concerns and are against the dumping in 2022. If there is a release of the radioactive waste water, independent ocean studies of the effects these contaminates will have in ocean water, marine biota, and seafloor sediments should occur before, during, and after the dumping. What needs to be added to this discussion is the effects the other radioactive isotopes in those 1000 tanks will cause, because they have vastly different toxicities than Tritium and the fate of the ocean is unknown.  Any and all countries , including the United States need to be allowed to send experts to FDNPP and testing of the radioactive waste water needs to occur before any dumping is allowed to ensure a safe level of radioactive waste into the ocean is accomplished.  This would show Japan's full transparency. Most studies show that more storage time is needed to drop the radioactive waste to suitable dumping levels, about 20 to 30 more years. For more information please go to: Love of the Ocean - Malama  O Ke Kai on Facebook.