Japan has launched the process of releasing water from the Fukushima nuclear power plant into the ocean

On Thursday morning, August 24, Japan launched the process of releasing water from the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant into the ocean.

There are now about 1.34 million tons of radioactive and purified water there.

As of August 3, these volumes occupied over 1,000 steel tanks, – TASS agency citing the Asahi newspaper, which, in turn, refers to the administration of the nuclear power plant.

They stated that during the first stage of drainage, a “radical” reduction in water in the Fukushima territory is not expected.

This is explained by the fact that the three reactors of this nuclear power plant damaged in 2011 by the tsunami require continuous cooling.

For this purpose, water is constantly poured into it, which later flows out – already contaminated – through gaps in the destroyed protective buildings.

This water undergoes a purification procedure and is then partially reused for cooling.

But at the same time, new volumes of water are constantly added in the process, which is taken from the ocean.

Based on these features of the procedure, the administration of the nuclear power plant has calculated that the entire volume of water will be discharged into the ocean no earlier than 2051.

By that time, experts expect to completely dismantle the damaged power units.

And at the first stage of the drainage, it is planned to dump about 7,800 tons of water into the ocean over 17 days.

In total, in the 2023 fiscal year, which ends on March 31, 2024, they want to discharge up to 31,200 tons of mostly radiation-free water from nuclear power plants.

It is assumed that only tritium, a radioactive isotope of hydrogen, may remain in this water.

But its content in water, Tokyo assures, will be 9.52 times less than the maximum permissible safety standard.