Second Wave Of Disposal Of Radioactive Waste Water PLTN Fukushima Begins, As Of 460 Tons Per Day

PLTN Fukushima Japan. (Wikimedia Commons/IAEA Imagebank/Tokyo Electric Power Co., TEPCO)

JAKARTA - The second round of radioactive water disposal that has been processed from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant that was damaged into the sea began on Thursday, the power plant operator said despite disputes with Japan and China.

Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. (TEPCO) said it plans to release about 460 tons of processed water per day to a location about one kilometer offshore through underwater tunnels for less than three weeks.

"This is the second round of four rounds to be carried out until the end of March, to release a total of about 31,200 tons of water, with a total tritium estimated at around 5 trillion becquerel, less than a quarter of the total annual limit of 22 trillion becquerel," Kyodo News reported October 5.

In total, TEPCO plans to dump 1.34 million tons of water or about 98 percent of the storage capacity, collected at more than 1,000 tanks at power plants over the next three decades.

The company said the tritium concentration rate in treated water, which diluted with seawater was recorded at 87 becquerel per liter, well below 1,500 becquerel, which is one-40th of the permitted concentrations based on Japanese safety standards.

No abnormal tritium and other radioactive levels have been detected in samples of seawater or fish collected from around the PLTN, since the first round of disposal that took place from August 24 to September 11, according to Japanese authorities, TEPCO and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

However, several countries, such as China and Russia, as well as local fishermen in Fukushima Prefecture criticized the Japanese government's decision.

Beijing has repeatedly urged Japan to stop the plan, saying the IAEA safety review was not a green light to dump nuclearly contaminated water into the sea.

Meanwhile, the IAEA effectively supports disposal security through a processing process that eliminates most of the radionuclides except for tritium, remaining within global safety standards.

It is known, China imposed a comprehensive ban on imports of Japanese seafood after the first round began. Meanwhile, Russia is considering following similar steps.