Today at 1 PM, 'Japanese Nuclear Plant Contaminated Water' Will Be Released into the Sea

The Japanese government and Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) will begin discharging contaminated water from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant into the ocean on the 24th.

According to a report by Kyodo News on the 23rd, TEPCO, the operator of the Fukushima nuclear plant, plans to start the discharge following the Japanese government's cabinet decision on the 22nd. The start time is reportedly being coordinated for 1 p.m.

Fukushima nuclear wastewater discharge facility disclosed by Tokyo Electric Power Company. / Photo by EPA Yonhap News

This marks two years and four months since then-Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga decided in April 2021 to dispose of the contaminated water by ocean discharge, and about twelve and a half years since the Fukushima nuclear accident caused by the Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11, 2011.

TEPCO will dilute the contaminated water stored in tanks on the Fukushima Daiichi site, which has been treated through the Advanced Liquid Processing System (ALPS), with seawater and discharge it into the ocean in front of the plant through an approximately 1 km-long underwater tunnel.

Even after purification by ALPS, trace amounts of radionuclides such as tritium and carbon-14 remain. Tritium, which ALPS cannot remove, will be diluted with seawater to a concentration below 1,500 becquerels (Bq) per liter?40 times lower than Japan’s regulatory standard?and then discharged into the ocean.

TEPCO plans to carry out the discharge operation for 17 days, diluting about 460 tons of contaminated water daily with seawater, initially releasing approximately 7,800 tons of contaminated water into the sea. After the discharge begins, concentration analyses will be conducted once a week.

On the afternoon of the 22nd, TEPCO already sent about 1 ton of contaminated water to the dilution facility, mixed it with seawater in a large tank, and started verifying whether the tritium concentration in the sampled water meets the discharge standards.

If there are no issues with tritium concentration or weather conditions, the contaminated water discharge will commence as scheduled on this day.