Fukushima Contaminated Water 8th Discharge... IAEA: "Tritium Much Lower Than Japan's Standard"

7800t Marine Discharge by the 25th

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) announced on the 7th (local time) that experts confirmed the concentration of radioactive nuclides in the contaminated water from the 8th discharge at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant was much lower than Japan's own standards after conducting an on-site inspection.

Tokyo Electric Power Company's Fukushima Contaminated Water Discharge Facility
[Image source=Yonhap News]

According to the IAEA, experts stationed at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant independently analyzed the diluted contaminated water just before the start of the 8th discharge and found that the concentration of the radioactive nuclide tritium was far below Japan's operational standard of 1500 Bq/ℓ.

Data related to the discharge, provided in real-time by Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) to the IAEA, showed that the tritium concentration in the diluted contaminated water was 293 Bq per liter as of 7:20 PM Japan time on the same day. Japan's operational standards are stricter than other international safety standards. The World Health Organization (WHO) guideline for tritium concentration in drinking water is 10,000 Bq/ℓ.

TEPCO will carry out the 8th discharge from today until the 25th. The discharge volume will be the same as before, 7,800 tons. TEPCO began releasing contaminated water into the ocean on August 24 last year and has diluted and discharged approximately 55,000 tons of contaminated water into the sea in front of the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant over seven occasions until last month.