Japan to release 1.23 million tonne contaminated water into ocean: Report

Contaminated water from Japan's damaged Fukushima Daichi nuclear power plant is allegedly going to be released into the Pacific Ocean as the Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco) that stores it is running out of storage space. According to Kyodo News, local Japanese fisherman from that area have voiced their concerns regarding the release of contaminated water into the ocean following the announcement of the decision by the government. The Fukushima Daichi nuclear power plant was severely damaged and rendered inoperable in 2011 following an intense earthquake and a massive Tsunami.

Local fishermen raise concerns

Tokyo Electric Power currently stores more than one million tonnes of contaminated water that was previously used to cool the nuclear plant's reactors in more than 1,000 tanks but will reportedly run out of storage space by 2022. The Japanese government is likely to reach a final decision regarding the disposal of the contaminated water by the end of this month, and if the plan gains approval then the process will begin in 2022 and take decades to complete.

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Over the last 10 years, the Japanese government has explored other options of getting rid of the contaminated water, such as building more storage tanks to house the water or evaporating the water but the government has reportedly decided that releasing the water is the best course of action.

The most vocal critics of this move by the Japanese government have been the local fisherman of the region who fears that if the contaminated water is released into the surrounding ocean then their years-long flight against false information can be seriously jeopardised. Local fisherman have reportedly spent years rebuilding consumers trust in their catches from the region and the release of contaminated water could be a major setback. South Korea that already does not allow the import of food from the affected region surrounding the nuclear plant has also expressed concerns regarding the release of the contaminated water into the ocean.

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