Anjali Sharma
GG News Bureau
WASHINGTON DC, 29th Feb. The Japanese Government on Wednesday began the4th release of nuclear-contaminated wastewater from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant into the Pacific Ocean, despite opposition, reported in news media.
Tokyo Electric Power Company, the plant’s operator, started discharging the radioactive wastewater at around 11:30 a.m. local time, despite opposition from local fishermen, residents and backlash from the international community, news reported.
Over 7,800 tons of the wastewater still contains tritium, a radioactive substance, will be discharged over about 17 days, the official said.
Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant was hit by a 9.0-magnitude earthquake and an ensuing tsunami on March 11, 2011, and suffered core meltdowns that released radiation, resulting in a level-7 nuclear accident, the highest on the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale.
The plant has been generating a massive amount of water tainted with radioactive substances from cooling down the nuclear fuel in the reactor buildings, which are now being stored in tanks at the nuclear plant.
