RLarge quantities of radioactive water from the damaged Japanese Fukushima nuclear power plant could soon be discharged into the sea. The Japanese Ministry of Industry recommended on Friday to dispose of the 1.2 million tons of water in this way instead of letting it evaporate. Permanent storage in tanks is also not feasible, it said. In the coming weeks, the government will continue to discuss the proposal. The power plant operator Tepco is slowly running out of storage capacity, and the tanks will last until summer 2022.
Almost nine years after the meltdown of three reactor cores after a tsunami, the disposal of radioactive water remains an unsolved problem. Some of the water was used to cool the damaged reactors, some of it is contaminated groundwater. Fishermen and residents fear environmental damage if it is released into the sea.
According to Tepco, all 62 radioactive elements can be removed from the treated water to such an extent that they are no longer harmful to humans. However, this does not apply to tritium, which is harmless in small quantities and, according to Tepco, is also routinely released in other nuclear power plants.
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