The Japanese government announced on Friday that the country’s nuclear regulators approved the release of the water from the disabled Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant into the sea.
According to the Foreign Ministry, the nuclear watchdog confirmed it is safe to release the 1.3 million tonnes of water that were used to cool nuclear reactors following the 2011 disaster that has been stored in the plant’s tanks, however noting it still contained traces of tritium, a rare and radioactive isotope of hydrogen.
While further inspections will be conducted, Japanese power company TEPCO said it would filter the contaminated water to remove harmful content. The nuclear power plant suffered major damage from the 9.0-magnitude earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan on March 11, 2011.
