TOKYO, August 21. /TASS/. Japan’s National Federation of Fisheries Cooperative Associations doesn’t support plans by the country’s government to discharge treated wastewater from the wrecked Fukushima nuclear power plant into the ocean, the head of the group, Masonobu Sakamoto, said at a meeting with Japan’s Industry Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura in Tokyo.

"We still oppose the dumping of treated wastewater into the ocean," Sakamoto said, NHK television reported. "We are very concerned that the discharge process will take several decades. All we want is to continue fishing in peace."

A tsunami that hit Japan in March 2011 disrupted power supply and cooling systems at the Fukushima nuclear power plant, resulting in the meltdown of nuclear fuel in three reactors, accompanied by explosions and releases of radiation into the atmosphere. Contamination of large areas prompted the evacuation of tens of thousands of people. Water used to cool the nuclear reactors has been stored in massive tanks, but the large amount of that water - more than 1.25 million tons - has made it increasingly difficult to continue to hold it. In April 2021, the Japanese government authorized the discharge of a significant amount of the water into the ocean, which is said to be mostly free of radioactive substances but still contains tritium, a radioactive isotope of hydrogen.

The plant's operator, the Tokyo Electric Power Company, said that before any discharge the tritium concentration in the wastewater would be brought down to one-fortieth of the level permitted under Japanese safety standards, and one-seventh of the standard set for drinking water by the World Health Organization. Even so, Tokyo's plans have sparked sharp criticism from some countries, most notably South Korea and China. The discharge is planned to be incremental and take up to 30 years. The IAEA intends to monitor the process on a permanent basis. The agency's specialists have conducted several inspections of the defunct plant over the past years.