At Japanese nuclear plant, controversial treated water release just the beginning of decommissioning
Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant's central control room in northeastern Japan, the treated water transfer switch is on. A graph on a computer monitor nearby shows a steady decrease of water levels as treated radioactive wastewater is diluted and released into the Pacific Ocean.
In the coastal area of the plant, two seawater pumps are in action, gushing torrents of seawater through sky blue pipes into the big header where the treated water, which comes down through a much thinner black pipe from the hilltop tanks, gets diluted by hundreds of times before the release.
The sound of the treated and diluted radioactive water flowing into an underground secondary pool was heard from beneath the ground during Sunday's first plant tour for media, including The Associated Press, since the controversial release began.
«The best way to eliminate the contaminated water is to remove the melted fuel debris,» said Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings spokesperson Kenichi Takahara, who escorted Sunday's media tour for the foreign press.
But Takahara said the scarcity of information from inside the reactors makes planning and development of the necessary robotic technology and a facility for the melted fuel removal extremely difficult.
«Removal of the melted fuel debris is not like we can just take it out and be finished,» he said.
The projected decades-long release of treated water has been strongly opposed by fishing groups and criticized by neighboring countries.
China immediately banned imports of seafood from Japan in response. In Seoul, thousands of South Koreans rallied over the weekend to condemn the release, demanding Japan to keep it in tanks.
For the wrecked Fukushima Daiichi, managing the ever-growing volume of radioactive
