Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) has completed the ninth round of its “nuclear-treated water” discharge operations into the sea today from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, with no abnormal levels of tritium detected in the surrounding seawater. Looking ahead to the 2024 fiscal year, which runs from April 1, 2024, to March 31, 2025, two more rounds of treated water discharge are planned.
According to Kyodo News, the ninth discharge commenced on September 26, marking the fifth round for the 2024 fiscal year, involving the release of over 7,800 tons of treated water—equivalent to about eight storage tanks.
This discharge also represents TEPCO’s first operation since Japan and China reached an agreement to resume the import of Japanese seafood into China.
During this discharge process, seawater samples collected near the discharge point on the 1st and 9th of this month showed tritium concentrations at 13 becquerels per liter, significantly lower than TEPCO’s internal discharge limit of 700 becquerels and well below the World Health Organization’s (WHO) recommended standard for drinking water of 10,000 becquerels.
Inside the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, approximately 1,000 storage tanks hold around 1.3 million tons of nuclear-treated water containing tritium and other radioactive substances. Since August 2023, TEPCO has been diluting this treated water with seawater to meet regulatory standards before discharging it gradually into the ocean as per guidelines from Japanese authorities.
TEPCO plans to release about 54,600 tons of treated water over seven rounds in the 2024 fiscal year, with each round averaging around 7,800 tons. Consequently, there are still two rounds of treated water discharges to be conducted in the upcoming fiscal year.
