Japanese Minister: Radioactive Fukushima Water Could Be Dumped Into The Pacific

[FBaggins]

9. Most people who passed an actual science course

The water that is being discussed has already been "cleaned up" of all but tritium (which is an essentially harmless substance).

As it relates to the "still hot and cooking" nonsense... radioactivity from fission daughter elements decays naturally (that's what the radiation is after all). The heat that was such a problem for the first hours/days/months came largely from the shorter half-life elements that are now largely gone.

For example - The Cesium 134 that some are using as the "fingerprint" of Fukushima radiation has a half-life of about two years... meaning that ~95% of it is gone... and the vast majority of the heat in spent fuel comes from much shorter half-life elements.

Spent fuel rods don't even need to be stored under water after about five years. They can be transferred dry casks with natural air flow keeping the fuel cool.