Japan plans to start releasing more than a million tonnes of treated water into the ocean from the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant this year, a top Japanese government spokesman said yesterday.
The plan has been endorsed by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), but the government is to wait for “a comprehensive report” by the UN watchdog before the release, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said.
Cooling systems at the plant were overwhelmed when a massive undersea earthquake triggered a tsunami in 2011, causing the worst nuclear accident since the Chernobyl accident in 1986.
Photo: AP
Decommissioning on the Fukushima plant has begun and is expected to take about four decades.
The site produced about 100m3 of contaminated water each day from April to November last year — a combination of groundwater, seawater and rain that seeps into the area, along with water used for cooling.
The water is filtered to remove various radionuclides and moved to storage tanks, with more than 1.3 million cubic meters on site as space runs out.
“We expect the timing of the release would be sometime during this spring or summer,” after release facilities are completed and tested, and the IAEA’s report is released, Matsuno said.
“The government as a whole will make the utmost efforts to ensure safety and take preventive measures against bad rumors,” he said, referring to concerns raised by neighboring countries and local fishing communities about the release plan.
Fishers in the region fear reputational damage from the release, after attempting for years to reestablish trust in their products through strict testing.
The Tokyo Electric Power Co, which operates the plant, says the treated water meets national standards for radionuclide levels, except for one element, tritium, which experts have said is only harmful to humans in large doses.
It plans to dilute the water to reduce tritium levels and release it offshore over several decades via a 1km-long underwater pipe.
The IAEA has said the release meets international standards and “will not cause any harm to the environment.”
Regional neighbors, including China and South Korea, and groups such as Greenpeace, have criticized the plan.
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