The owner of the damaged nuclear power plant Fukushima The first batch of treated water from the plant was discharged today, dumping 7,788 tonnes of liquid into the sea, a spokeswoman confirmed to EFE.
The water was in 10 tanks and the draining occurred “without setbacks,” said the company that operates the plant and is responsible for the process, Tokyo Electric Company (TEPCO, its English acronym).
This corresponds to approximately 0.6% of 1.34 million tons of radioactive water treated which was stored at the facility before the oil spill began on August 24th.
In the next three weeks, TEPCO plans to conduct an inspection of the equipment used in the process and begin the second batch of casting once the relevant preparations are completed.
Million tons contaminated water They arose in the plants, either from the cooling work of the damaged reactors and melted fuel in the 2011 nuclear accident or from rainwater seeping in over the years.
This water is treated through a complex filtration system that removes most of the harmful radioactive elements. minus tritiumbe poured into tanks before storage.
Giving water for three decades
Currently there are more than 1,000 tanks on the factory premises and the discharge is expected to continue for at least 30 years.
The treated water is diluted to reduce the tritium content present to less than a quarter of the concentration permitted by national safety regulations and up to a level consistent with international standards considered by the EU International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which approved the plan.
TEPCO is conducting daily sampling and analysis of water samples from the Pacific Ocean within a three-kilometer radius of the discharge zone, the results of which are currently publicly available did not detect any abnormal radioactive levels.
The IAEA, which has also carried out independent analyses, has not found any abnormalities at these levels.
The agency has repeatedly noted that nuclear power plants around the world routinely discharge treated water containing tritium and other radionuclides as part of their normal operations.