TEPCO Completes 2nd Round of Treated Water Discharge at Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant

The Yomiuri Shimbun

13:02 JST, October 24, 2023

The second round of the discharge of treated water into the ocean from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant was completed Monday, according to Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, Inc.

Similar to the first round, no abnormalities were detected in seawater and fish samples collected from around the plant and no trouble occurred at the facility, the company said.

TEPCO plans to carry out two more rounds of water discharge during the fiscal year and will decide when to start the third round.

“We’ll continue to work on the issue with the utmost care and caution,” a company official said at a press conference Monday.

TEPCO’s plan is to release about 31,200 tons of treated water, representing approximately 2% of the total stored amount, in four rounds during the current fiscal year, with about 7,800 tons released in each round. The first round ran from Aug. 24 to Sept. 11, and the second one began Oct. 5.

During the second round of discharge, TEPCO and the government collected seawater and fish samples from around the plant and checked them for tritium and other radioactive substances, but the levels remained far below national regulatory limits and other criteria.