“The only option will be to drain it into the sea and dilute it,” the minister, Yoshiaki Harada, told a news briefing in Tokyo, reports Reuters. “The whole of the government will discuss this, but I would like to offer my simple opinion.”
Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco) has been struggling for years now to deal with the build-up of groundwater that has become contaminated when it mixes with water used to prevent the three damaged reactor cores from melting. So far, TEPCO has about 1,000 tanks on site containing the contaminated water.
There have been attempts to remove most radionuclides from the excess water, but the technology does not exist to rid the water of tritium, a radioactive isotope of hydrogen. Coastal nuclear plants commonly dump water that contains tritium into the ocean. It occurs in minute amounts in nature.
But TEPCO has already stated they have not been successful in removing all the contaminates besides tritium. There has been no decision made yet on the plan to dump the water into the Pacific Ocean as of today. Other options include vaporizing the liquid or storing it on land for an extended period.
One recent study by Hiroshi Miyano, who heads a committee studying the decommissioning of Fukushima Daiichi at the Atomic Energy Society of Japan, said it would take at least 17 years to discharge the treated water after it had been diluted to levels that would meet the plant’s safety standards.
Added to this is the protests by the local fisherman who had worked especially hard to bring back the fishing industry crippled by the Fukushima Daichi disaster. Even South Korea is concerned, with its foreign ministry asking Japan to make “a wise and prudent decision on the issue,” per Reuters.
However, Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, in a separate press briefing, described Harada’s comments as “his personal opinion.”
Tepco is not in a position to decide what to do but will follow the policy once the government has made a decision, a spokesman for the utility said.