Photo/Illutration Treated and diluted water is transported to a tank, right, through a blue pipe in the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant before being released into the ocean. (Tatsuya Shimada)

A splashing sound was heard as treated contaminated water, mixed with seawater pumped in for dilution, was flowing in a massive blue pipe of a diameter of 1.8 meters.

“(The discharge) is proceeding as planned while ensuring safety,” said an official of Tokyo Electric Power Co.

Officials from the operator of the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant showed the equipment being used for discharging treated water into the ocean on Aug. 27 to the media.

The officials also explained the monitors in the seismic isolation building’s remote control room, where operators check for abnormalities in the discharge.

They said they patrol the relevant facilities once a day to check for any unusual sounds from the pump or leaks from the pipes.

Since suffering a triple meltdown in the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami disaster, cooling water has been continuously injected into the reactor cores to cool molten fuel debris at the plant.

Groundwater and rain have also flowed into the reactor buildings, increasing the volume of contaminated water.

The contaminated water has been filtered to remove radioactive substances using the Advanced Liquid Processing System (ALPS) and stored in tanks. Currently, TEPCO said there are more than 1,000 tanks on the Fukushima plant site, which are nearing capacity.

Emptying these storage tanks is seen as a necessary step in continuing the decades-long effort to decommission the reactors. 

After confirming that the concentration of radioactive substances, excluding tritium that cannot be removed by the ALPS, is below the safety standard, TEPCO dilutes the treated water with a large amount of seawater to reduce the tritium concentration, according to TEPCO.

Tritium concentration levels are set under 1,500 becquerels per liter, which is one-40th of the government’s legal standard.

In the first discharge stage, which began on Aug. 24, TEPCO said it will release 7,800 tons of the water treated through ALPS by around Sept. 10.

Since the start of the discharge, there has been a series of harassing phone calls believed to be coming from China received in various public and private entities in Japan. The Chinese government has vigorously opposed the release of the water into the ocean, banning all seafood imports from Japan. 

“It is regrettable,” a TEPCO official said. “As an operator, we will continue to provide monitoring results and other information in multiple languages based on scientific-supported safety standards.”

TEPCO said its website is available in English, Chinese and Korean, in addition to Japanese.

The treated water has been released into the sea from the water-release outlet located about 1 kilometer off the coast of the nuclear plant.

On Aug. 27, the Environment Ministry, TEPCO and the Fukushima prefectural government each announced the monitoring results of seawater samples taken from around the outlet and other locations.

They said that the concentration of tritium in all locations fell below the level at which the test could detect the radioactive substance.

The ministry said that it has confirmed no impact on people or the environment.

The ministry collected seawater from 11 locations on the morning of Aug. 25, the day after the discharge began.

TEPCO took samples from 10 locations on the morning of Aug. 26. The Fukushima prefectural government collected seawater from nine locations on Aug. 25.

(This article was written by Shoko Rikimaru and Keitaro Fukuchi.)

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