TOKYO (AP) – The Japanese government said on Tuesday that it has decided to start releasing massive amounts of radioactive water stored in tanks at the destroyed Fukushima nuclear power plant within two years of the treatment.
The decision, long speculated but delayed for years due to security concerns and protests, came Tuesday at a meeting of cabinet ministers who endorsed the release as the best option.
The water has been collected and stored in tanks at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant since the 2011 meltdown following a massive earthquake and tsunami, causing cooling water to leak from the damaged reactors.
The operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co., says the storage capacity will be full by the fall of 2022.
Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga told the ministerial meeting that the government has accepted the discharge into the sea as “most realistic” and that the discharge of the water is “inevitable to achieve the recovery of Fukushima”.
TEPCO and government officials say that tritium, which is not harmful in small amounts, cannot be removed from the water, but all other selected radionuclides can be reduced to levels that are allowed to be released. Some scientists say the long-term impact on marine life of low dose exposure to such large amounts of water is unknown.
According to a report of the base plan passed by ministers on Tuesday, TEPCO will begin discharging the water approximately two years after the construction of a facility under the regulatory agency’s safety requirements.