Tokyo Electric Power Company Submits Application for Contaminated Water Ocean Discharge Review to Japan's Nuclear Regulation Authority

Storage tanks containing contaminated water from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Japan
[Photo by AP Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Byung-hee] Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) applied for a review of the implementation plan for the ocean discharge of contaminated water from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant to the Nuclear Regulation Authority of Japan on the 21st, local media including Kyodo News reported on the same day.

The application for review is about three months later than the schedule TEPCO presented last August. At that time, TEPCO proposed to apply for the review around September this year and start discharging contaminated water from spring 2023.

TEPCO, the operator of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, which suffered an explosion accident during the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011, purifies the contaminated water generated at the plant using the Advanced Liquid Processing System (ALPS) and stores it in tanks on the plant site. However, the radioactive substance tritium contained in the contaminated water is not filtered out even after purification.

The Japanese government announced in April this year that it will dilute the purified contaminated water with seawater to lower the tritium concentration below the standard level and discharge it into the ocean starting from spring 2023.

Following the government’s policy, TEPCO plans to build a new 1-kilometer-long underwater tunnel to discharge the water into the sea off Fukushima. Approval from the Nuclear Regulation Authority is required for construction work such as the underwater tunnel for the ocean discharge of contaminated water.

TEPCO also submitted a "prior consent request" necessary for facility expansion to the basic local governments near the Fukushima nuclear power plant the day before. There are deep-rooted concerns locally about damage to fisheries caused by the discharge of contaminated water, so gaining understanding from local stakeholders such as fishery groups is considered a key task.

According to local public broadcaster NHK, TEPCO plans to start full-scale construction work after obtaining understanding from local residents and stakeholders.

South Korea’s Nuclear Safety and Security Commission expressed regret over Japan’s decision to discharge Fukushima contaminated water into the ocean at the 13th Korea-China-Japan High-Level Nuclear Safety Regulators Meeting held via video conference over two days starting on the 30th of last month. China also raised the issue of ocean discharge of contaminated water during an online maritime working-level meeting on the 20th involving director-level officials from Chinese and Japanese diplomatic authorities.

There are also views that it is still uncertain whether TEPCO can start discharging contaminated water from spring 2023 as planned.

Toyoshi Fuketa, chairman of Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority, said to reporters after inspecting the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant on the 2nd that the goal of spring 2023 set by the government and TEPCO for the start of contaminated water discharge is "at a very difficult stage" to achieve.

For the ocean discharge of Fukushima contaminated water, approval of the implementation plan by the Nuclear Regulation Authority, public opinion gathering, explanations to stakeholders, preparation of compensation measures, and facility construction are required.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.