TOKYO (AP) – The Japanese government announced on Tuesday that it will release treated radioactive water from the devastated Fukushima nuclear plant in the Pacific Ocean over two years. It is an action that fiercely opposes fishermen, residents and Japan’s neighbors.
The decision, which has long been speculated but delayed for years due to security concerns and protests, came at a meeting of Cabinet ministers endorsing the release of the ocean as the best option.
The accumulating water has been stored in tanks in the Fukushima Daiichi plant since 2011, when a massive earthquake and tsunami damaged the reactors and their cooling water became contaminated and started leaking. The storage capacity of the plant will be full by the end of next year.
Premier Yoshihide Suga said releasing the ocean was the most realistic option and that disposing of the water was needed to decompose the Fukushima plant for decades. He said the government will work to ensure the water is safe and to help local agriculture, fisheries and tourism.
The plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co., and government officials say tritium, which is not harmful in small amounts, can not be removed from the water, but all other selected radionuclides can be reduced to the soluble levels. Some scientists believe that the long-term impact on marine life due to exposure to low doses of such large amounts of water is unknown.
The government emphasizes water safety and calls it ‘treated’, not ‘radioactive’, although radionuclides can only be reduced to disposable levels, not zero. The amount of radioactive material that would remain in the water is unknown.
The release of the water into the ocean has been described as the most realistic solution by a government panel that has been discussing how to dispose of the water for almost seven years. In the report, evaporation was mentioned last year as a less desirable option.
According to the basic plan approved by the ministers on Tuesday, TEPCO will start releasing the water in about two years after a facility is built and release plans are drawn up that meet the safety requirements. It is said that the removal of the water can not be further delayed and that it is necessary to improve the environment around the plant so that residents can live there safely.
Residents, fisheries officials and environmental groups have issued statements denying the decision to ignore environmental safety and health, further harming Fukushima’s image and economy.
The chairman of the Japanese Fisheries Cooperative, Hiroshi Kishi, said the decision less than a week after meeting with Suga “trampled” all Japanese fisheries.
Local fisheries are only back in full swing after a decade in which their catch was for testing purposes only, and they are struggling due to declining demand.
Protesters gathered outside the Prime Minister’s office to demand that the plan be scrapped.
TEPCO says the capacity of 1.37 million tonnes for water storage will be full by the autumn of 2022. The area now filled with storage tanks should be used for new buildings needed for the removal of molten fuel debris from the reactors and for other decommissioning work in coming years.
In the decade since the tsunami disaster, water that had to cool the nuclear material has continuously escaped from the damaged primary vessels in the basement of the reactor buildings. To compensate for the loss, more water was pumped into the reactors to further cool the molten fuel. Water is also pumped out and treated, part of which is recycled as cooling water, and the rest is stored in 1,020 tanks which now contain 1.25 million tonnes of radioactive water.
The tanks, which occupy a large space, complicate the safe and steady progress of the dismantling, said Hiroshi Kajiyama, Minister of Economy and Industry. The tanks could also be damaged and leak in the event of another powerful earthquake or tsunami, the report said.
About 70% of the water in the tanks is polluted outside the exhaust limits, but is re-filtered and diluted with seawater before being released, the report said. According to a preliminary estimate, the gradual release of the water will take almost 40 years, but it will be completed before the plant is fully operational.
Toyoshi Fuketa, the chairman of the Japanese nuclear regulatory authority, has repeatedly called for an ocean discharge, saying a controlled release of the adequately treated water poses no human or environmental damage.
IAEA Director-General Rafael Mariano Grossi said in a video message that the discharge of the ocean is in line with international practice, although “the large amount of water at the Fukushima plant makes it a unique and complex matter.”
He said the IAEA would fully support Japan in its environmental monitoring to ensure the safety of water release, its transparency and confidence inside and outside the country.
China and South Korea reacted strongly to Tuesday’s ruling.
Koo Yun-cheol, minister of South Korea’s government policy coordination office, said the plan was “absolutely unacceptable” and called on Japan to disclose how the water is being treated and its safety verified. South Korea has banned the import of seafood from parts of Japan since 2013 and could step up.
China has criticized Japan’s decision as ‘extremely irresponsible’, saying it has not taken into account the health problems of neighboring countries.
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Associated Press author Kim Tong-hyung in Seoul, South Korea, contributed to this report.