Fukushima nuclear radioactive wastewater will reach its limit

Recently, a small committee of the Japanese government convened a meeting to discuss the treatment of the continuously increasing tritium-containing radioactive material in Tokyo Electric Power Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station.

Reported that this is about seven months since the convening of a small committee meeting again. Five treatments for discharging into the sea have been discussed before, but it is the first time that long-term preservation of fishery-related persons and others with high voice is taken as a topic of discussion. The Bureau said that "there is no pre-set agenda" and said that discussions will continue in the future.

Tokyo Electric Power said that the use of in-situ storage tanks will reach the limit in the summer of 2022, and it will be difficult to expand the storage capacity or transfer it outside the site. If it is preserved for a long time, storage tanks will be left after the end of scrap operation, and land will be occupied for the storage facilities of molten nuclear fuel (fuel debris).

Wastewater from fuel debris cooling process is purified by "multi-nuclide removal equipment" (ALPS), but radioactive tritium can not be removed, resulting in the continuous increase of treated water. The Atomic Energy Regulatory Commission pointed out that it should be diluted and discharged into the sea.

By the end of July 2019, about 1.1 million tons of nuclear wastewater had been stored in storage tanks. Tokyo Electric Power plans to ensure storage capacity of 1.37 million tons by the end of 2020, while storage capacity remains uncertain after that.