The Japanese company Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO), which operates the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant affected by the disaster, will begin releasing the fourth batch of radioactive water from the nuclear facility on February 28.
The company has already released two batches of treated water from the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant. The process has been approved by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). No elevated tritium levels were detected in the seawater around the nuclear power plant.
In March 2011, a tsunami crippled the power and cooling systems of the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant, leading to meltdowns in three reactors and the release of large amounts of radioactive material. To date, the plant and surrounding areas have been almost completely decontaminated. However, water that is constantly poured into the damaged reactors to cool nuclear fuel fragments flows out through gaps heavily contaminated with radioactive particles.
Currently, there are over 1.34 million tons of water at the nuclear power plant. However, the Japanese government decided to gradually treat this water and then release it into the sea. The process is expected to take 30 to 40 years. The water is treated by the Advanced Liquid Processing System (ALPS) and also diluted with seawater, but it still contains tritium, which cannot be removed.
The maximum permissible tritium concentration is 1,500 becquerels per liter, and measurements conducted in the sea by Japanese officials and IAEA experts confirm that the treated water meets these parameters. Therefore, starting August 24, 2023, China has suspended imports of seafood from Japan as the first batch of water was released into the ocean. On October 16, 2023, the Russian agricultural watchdog joined China's import ban on fish and seafood from Japan. The EU has not imposed any import restrictions on fishery products from Japan.
