Japan Finishes 3rd Phase of Water Release From Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant - Reports

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) has completed the third stage of treated water release from Japan's damaged Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant into the ocean, public broadcaster NHK reported on Monday.

TEPCO began the third round of water discharge on November 2. According to the company's data, the water, which firstly went through the ALPS purification system, had 55-77 becquerels of tritium per liter which is much less than a norm of 1,500 becquerels.

The channel added that the water release did not cause any problems, and over 7,800 tonnes of purified water from 10 tanks were discharged as planned.

Japan started implementing the plan to gradually discharge 1.34 million tonnes of treated water from Fukushima into the ocean on August 24. The entire process is expected to take at least 30 years. China banned all seafood from Japan over concerns about radioactive contamination even though the IAEA said that treated wastewater would have a negligible radiological impact on the marine environment and human health.

The Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant suffered a meltdown after being hit by a massive tsunami triggered by a 9-magnitude earthquake in 2011. Since then, water has been continuously pumped in to cool the plant's reactors. As of June, around 1,000 tanks of treated wastewater were stored on site.