The International Atomic Energy Agency on July 4 effectively endorsed the safety of a controversial Japanese plan to discharge treated radioactive water from the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear meltdown accident into the Pacific Ocean.
Rafael Mariano Grossi, the director general of the United Nations nuclear organization, presented the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report to Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Tokyo Tuesday, according to a press release.
The IAEA press release and accompanying video on the website stressed ultimate approval of the plan must come from the Japanese government, not IAEA.
A link to the full 140-page report, which culminates two years of study by an IAEA task force with members from 11 countries, can be found here. The safety review was done in coordination with Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority, the IAEA said.
The station’s meltdown in the aftermath of a major earthquake and tsunami in March 2011 resulted in the accumulation of large amounts of water. A recent CNN article estimated there is 1.32 million metric tons of wastewater at the Fukushima site. A decade after the accident, in 2021, the government of Japan published a strategy on what to do with the water, according to the IAEA report.
The IAEA found the Japanese plan “consistent with relevant international safety standards,” according to the report. “Furthermore, the IAEA notes the controlled, gradual discharges of the treated water to the sea, as currently planned and assessed by [Tokyo Electric Power Co.], would have a negligible radiological impact on people and the environment,” according to the report.
Discharge of the diluted and treated water would utilize a one-kilometer tunnel beneath the seabed, according to the report. As part of its work, the IAEA task force observed pressure tests of the pipes in the transfer facility and vetted leak detection monitors, according to the document.
The radioactive water was treated with what is called the Advanced Liquid Processing System. The system removes most radionuclides but not tritium and the Japanese plan calls for diluting the tritium-contaminated water with seawater, according to IAEA.
The IAEA video acknowledges the water discharge plan has generated concern both among local people in Japan and other countries. Grossi pledged that IAEA will continue to play an active role at Fukushima for decades to come. “A clean ocean matters to us all,” he said.
