TOKYO: Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. has announced a plan to release a total of about 54,600 tons of treated water containing tritium, a radioactive substance, into the ocean from its crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant on seven occasions in fiscal 2024.

The water will be diluted with seawater before being discharged into the Pacific Ocean, according to the plan announced Thursday.

TEPCO is slated to finalize the plan by the March 31 end of fiscal 2023 while taking into account opinions from the Japanese government and the Fukushima prefectural government. The nuclear plant in Fukushima Prefecture, northeastern Japan, was severely damaged in the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

The water discharge into the sea started in August 2023. In fiscal 2023, TEPCO is set to release a total of about 31,200 tons of treated water in four batches, with the fourth and final release for the year scheduled late next month.

Surveys by TEPCO have found that the tritium concentration in seawater and fishery items sampled near the water release point was far below the national standards.

JIJI Press