August 30, 2025

Akahata ‘current’ column (excerpts)

On the premises of the Tokyo Electric Power Company’s Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant are more than 1,000 storage tanks filled with contaminated water treated with a multi-nuclide removal system (the Advanced Liquid Processing System, or ALPS).

TEPCO in August 2023 launched the release of the ALPS-treated water into the ocean from the Fukushima NPP by stating that the ocean release aims to free up the space and secure the land to build a facility needed for the decommissioning work.

The power company for the past two years released 100,000 tons of ALPS-treated water, equivalent to more than 100 tanks. However, the total amount of Fukushima water decreased by only 60,000 tons. At this rate, it would take at least 40 years to empty all the tanks.

Inside the Nos 1-3 reactors, cooling water, which is being continuously injected to keep melted nuclear fuel debris stable, has become highly radioactive and has been accumulated. In addition to this, with groundwater and rainwater flowing into the three reactor buildings, about 70 tons of new contaminated water is produced every day.

TEPCO announced last month that the start of a large-scale removal of fuel debris, the source of contaminated water, will be delayed to fiscal 2037 or later from the initially planned early 2030s.

The long and difficult journey to settling the 2011 nuclear meltdown accident and decommissioning the crippled Fukushima NPP is immeasurable. Nevertheless, the government has formulated an energy policy which sticks to the use of nuclear power. In line with this policy, power companies have expressed their intent to conduct a survey to show public approval to the construction of new nuclear power plants. It seems as though they have forgotten the lessons derived from the Fukushima nuclear disaster, which is totally unacceptable.

Past related article:
> Small hydropower generation receives attention [March 16, 2023]