TEPCO considers dumping water from Fukushima nuclear plant into ocean

Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) has started to consider dumping massive amounts of water from the crippled Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant into the Pacific Ocean after treating the radiation-tainted water.

The utility is considering taking the measure because space on the premises of the nuclear power station for storage tanks for contaminated water is nearing its limit. Before releasing the contaminated water into the ocean, TEPCO plans to introduce new purification equipment to remove radioactive substances from the contaminated water as early as the end of March and conduct a test operation. But with the local fisheries industry standing firmly against any move to release the water into the ocean, the situation remains far from resolved.

At an expert meeting of the Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) held in Tokyo on March 1, a TEPCO official commented on how to deal with the ever-increasing contaminated water, saying, "We will treat it with new purification equipment. If we were to release the water into the ocean, we would like to obtain the understanding of the people concerned." Responding to this, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told a plenary session of the House of Representatives on March 5, "The water will not be released into the ocean easily."

There is about 360,000 cubic meters of contaminated water on the premises of the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant. Of the total volume of the water, about 80,000 cubic meters is in reactor buildings at the No. 1 to No. 4 reactors and about 40,000 cubic meters is in other reactor buildings and elsewhere, leaving storage tanks that can hold only about 240,000 cubic meters available.

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