Japan to release contaminated Fukushima water into sea

Japan will release over 1 million tonnes of contaminated water from the destroyed Fukushima nuclear station into the sea, the government said on Tuesday.

The first release of water will take place in about two years, giving plant operator Tokyo Electric Power time to begin filtering the water to remove harmful isotopes, build infrastructure and acquire regulatory approval.

Japan has argued the water release is necessary to press ahead with the complex decommissioning of the plant after it was crippled by a 2011 earthquake and tsunami, pointing out that similarly filtered water is routinely released from nuclear plants around the world.

Nearly 1.3 million tonnes of contaminated water, or enough to fill about 500 Olympic-sized swimming pools, is stored in huge tanks at the Fukushima Daiichi plant at an annual cost of about $912.66 million and space is running out.

“Releasing the treated water is an unavoidable task to decommission the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant and reconstruct the Fukushima area,” Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said.

The decision comes about three months ahead of the postponed Tokyo Olympic Games, with some events to be held as close as 60 km to the wrecked plant.

Former Japanese Minister Shinzo Abe in 2013 assured the International Olympics Committee in pitching for the games that Fukushima will never do any damage to Tokyo.

The United States noted that Japan has worked closely with the International Atomic Energy Agency in its handling of the site.

ARR