The operator of the tsunami-wrecked Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant will begin releasing the first batch of treated and diluted radioactive wastewater into the Pacific Ocean later Thursday, utility executives said. Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings executive Junichi Matsumoto, who is in charge of the project, said its final preparations and testing have cleared safety standards and the release will begin in the early afternoon. The release will begin more than 12 years after the meltdowns of three reactors at the plant that was heavily damaged by the massive earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan's northeastern coast on March 11, 2011.
Japan has begun the process of pumping over a million metric tons of treated radioactive water from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. The water, which was contaminated from contact with fuel rods, will be gradually released into the sea over the course of several decades. Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco), the utility responsible for the plant, has been filtering the water to remove isotopes, leaving only tritium, a relatively harmless radioactive isotope of hydrogen.