TOKYO (Reuters) – Tokyo Electric Power will consult with fishing communities and other stakeholders before finalising plans to release contaminated water built up at its wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant, an official said on Thursday.
The company known as Tepco on Wednesday outlined plans to discharge the water, after treatment and dilution, from a point about 1 km (0.6 miles) offshore from the Fukushima station. It was the first attempt by the government and Tepco to flesh out the controversial plan announced in April.
“We haven’t had direct consultations with fisheries regarding the discharge,” the senior Tepco official said at a briefing on the status of the plant, adding that the plans announced this week would be open to public consultation.
“We are looking forward to the opinions from fishing communities and others. We welcome their views,” the official said.
About 1.3 million tonnes of water, or enough to fill about 500 Olympic-sized swimming pools, are stored in huge tanks at the plant after being contaminated by coming into contact with melted uranium fuel in the damaged reactors.
The company has said it costs about 100 billion yen ($910 million) to treat and store the water and space is also running out at the site so it needs to release it to the ocean.
Tepco said on Wednesday it will dilute the water held in the tanks more than 100 times with seawater to ensure it is within regulatory limits on radiation before pumping it through a tunnel under the seabed to the discharge point.
($1 = 110.1700 yen)
(Reporting by Aaron Sheldrick; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
