‘Only Option’: Japan May Dump Fukushima Nuclear Plant Water Into Pacific Ocean

Photo: The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, seen on Feb. 22, 2016. (TOSHIFUMI KITAMURA/AFP/Getty Images)

Japan’s environment minister said the country will have to dump large quantities of contaminated water from the Fukushima Daiichi power plant, which was damaged during the March 2011 earthquake, because the facility is running out of room.

During the devastating earthquake and subsequent tsunami, three Fukushima reactors were damaged. However, by 2022, storage space will run out at the facility, the BBC reported.

More than a million tons have been collected by TEPCO, Fukushima’s operator, from the plant’s cooling pipes used to keep fuel cores from melting, Japan Today reported.

“The only option will be to drain it into the sea and dilute it,” the Japanese environment minister, Yoshiaki Harada, said on Sept. 10, according to the publication. “The whole of the government will discuss this, but I would like to offer my simple opinion.”

The Japanese government is awaiting a report from a panel before making a decision on how to dump the water.

“It is not true that we have decided on the disposal method,” Suga also said, AFP reported.

A spokesman for TEPCO said that the power company isn’t in a position to dump the water.

The BBC noted that over the past eight years, some 200 tons of […]

Full article: ‘Only Option’: Japan May Dump Fukushima Nuclear Plant Water Into Pacific Ocean