Tepco ends 5th round of treated water discharge slated for fiscal 2024

Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings (Tepco) said Monday that it has completed the fifth round of discharges of tritium-containing treated water from its Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant into the ocean for fiscal 2024.

About 7,800 metric tons of the water, diluted with seawater, was released about 1 kilometer offshore through an undersea tunnel in the latest operation from Sept. 26, which marked the ninth round since Tepco began to release the treated water in August last year.

The company plans to carry out two more discharges for the current fiscal year ending next March.

Tepco, the government and other organizations monitor tritium concentrations in seawater samples and fishery products collected in waters near the plant.

Tritium levels have remained far lower than the limits set under Japanese safety standards.

At the power plant, the site of the March 2011 triple meltdown, radioactive water continues to accumulate as Tepco still needs to cool the damaged reactors.

Tepco releases the water after processing it through water cleanup equipment.