The United Nation’s nuclear watchdog approved a plan from Japan to return treated radioactive water from the Fukushima nuclear plant to the ocean.
The International Atomic Energy Agency approved Japan’s plan after a two-year review.
In a press release, the agency said Japan’s plans were in line with international safety standards and that the release of the treated water would have a “negligible radiological impact on people and the environment.”
The plan’s approval comes 12 years after a 9.0-magnitude earthquake and ensuing tsunami triggered a series of events leading up to a triple-reactor meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
More than 150,000 people were evacuated from the area surrounding the plant following the accident, which is considered the worst nuclear disaster since the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.
Japan claims the treated water is safe to return to the sea, but the plan has received pushback from some Japanese people and from the country’s neighbors, mainly South Korea and China.
“Japan should stop the plan to release the water into the sea, but seriously consult with the international community and consider a scientific, safe, transparent and convincing response,” China’s ambassador to Japan said Tuesday, according to The New York Times.
Japan has not specified when it will begin to release the water into the ocean or how long it will take. But under a basic policy outlined by Japan in 2021, batches of the treated water could be routinely poured back into the ocean for the next 30 years.
Currently, 1.3 million tons of the radioactive water is being stored in more than 1,000 tanks built by the Fukushima plant’s operator Tokyo Electric Power and has been treated through an “Advanced Liquid Processing System,” to remove radioactive isotopes.
That system removes “almost all radioactivity, aside from tritium,” according to the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Tritium is a radioactive isotope of hydrogen that cannot be separated from water, according to the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
But before dumping the treated water into the ocean, Japan plans to dilute the water until tritium levels fall below regulatory standards.
This practice is one routinely performed at nuclear power plants around the world, according to the commission.