Japan plans to release 54.6 tons of water from Fukushima in 2024

Japan’s Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) company plans to discharge 54.6 tons of purified wastewater from its crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant (NPP) in fiscal year 2024 (from April 1 2024 to March 31, 2025), Azernews reports citing Kyodonews.

The water will be divided into seven portions, the agency said.

Besides, TEPCO decided to postpone the extraction of melted nuclear core’s fragments until October.

In March 2011, a tsunami knocked out power and cooling facilities at the Fukushima NPP, leading to a nuclear meltdown in three reactors, the destruction of their vessels, explosions and the release of large amounts of radioactive material. To date, the plant and surrounding areas have been almost completely cleaned up. However, the water that is constantly poured into the destroyed reactors to cool down nuclear fuel fragments flows out through gaps highly contaminated with radioactive particles.

There are currently over 1.34 mln tons of water at the NPP. That said, the Japanese government decided to gradually treat and then discharge this water into the sea. The process, which is expected to take 30 to 40 years, caused tensions with a number of countries, namely China, despite being approved by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

The water is treated through the Advanced Liquid Processing System (ALPS) and is also diluted with seawater but still contains tritium that cannot be removed. The maximum allowable concentration of tritium is 1,500 becquerels per liter, and the measurements that the Japanese officials and IAEA experts take in the ocean confirm that the treated water meets these parameters.