Japan begins to release Fukushima water into ocean

Amid widespread criticism and apprehensions, Japan has started releasing treated radioactive water from the devastated Fukushima nuclear power plant into the Pacific Ocean.

The decision to release the water into the Ocean stirred a massive controversy and invited criticism from several nations.

The water was being released through the seawater transfer pumps into the Pacific shortly after 1pm local time (04:00 GMT) with plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) announcing earlier that weather and sea conditions were suitable.

“Now, valves near the seawater transport pumps are opening,” a TEPCO official said via a video link from the site broadcast at the company’s Tokyo headquarters.

More than one million metric tonnes of the treated water, used to cool the wrecked reactors after the 2011 tsunami, is currently stored in some 1,000 tanks around the site and its removal is a key part of decommissioning the still highly dangerous facility.

The entire discharge process is expected to take as long as 40 years.

Monitors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which has backed the plan, will be on-site for the discharge, and samples of water and fish will be taken.

Japan says all radioactive elements have been filtered out except tritium, which is hard to remove from water. The hydrogen isotope is also discharged – at higher levels – by operational nuclear power plants, including in China and France.

The company will carry out four releases of treated water until March 2024, with 7,800 cubic metres of water released each time. The discharge that has just begun is expected to take about 17 days.

Shortly after the release started, China, which has lodged a formal complaint over the plan, again accused Japan of being “extremely selfish.