Controversial plan will see Fukushima’s radioactive wastewater discharged into sea
As contaminated water builds plant’s owner hopes to begin discharging it this summer
The operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant began tests last week on new facilities for discharging treated radioactive wastewater into the sea for decades to come. The Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) plans to start discharging it this summer, a controversial move which is opposed by local fishing communities, environmental groups and neighbouring countries such as South Korea and China. However, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has confirmed that the release would fall within regulatory limits. The scientific community is broadly supportive, although some difference of opinion remains.
In 2011, an earthquake and tsunami destroyed the plant’s cooling systems, causing three reactor meltdowns and releasing large amounts of radioactive material. In the following months, over 300,000 tonnes of untreated water used to cool the reactors’ cores were dumped into the Pacific Ocean. It contained radioactive products of nuclear fission including long-lived heavy nuclei like caesium-137, strontium-90 and iodine-131.