VIENNA, September 9. /TASS/. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has measured the level of tritium in the ocean near Japan's Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant for the first time after the discharge of treated water, and the concentration did not exceed the established norm.
"The International Atomic Energy Agency’s first independent sampling and analysis of seawater near the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station (FDNPS) since discharges of ALPS treated water started on August 24 confirms that the tritium levels are below Japan’s operational limit," the agency said in a statement.
The organization's experts collected samples at several locations within a three-kilometer radius of the treated water discharge point.
In early September, the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) announced that its experts had detected tritium in the ocean for the first time. Water samples taken on August 31 near the discharge site showed tritium at 10 becquerels per liter, which is 6,000 times lower than the permissible limit (60,000 becquerels per liter) set by the International Commission on Radiological Protection and the Japanese government. It is also 1,050 times lower than the WHO acceptable standard for drinking water (10,500 becquerels per liter). Japan had previously promised that tritium levels in the water would not exceed 1,500 becquerels per liter.
More than 1.25 million tons of water used to cool reactors damaged by the March 2011 tsunami has accumulated in tanks at the plant. The Japanese government says the water is generally free of radioactive substances, containing only the isotope hydrogen (tritium). In April 2021, Tokyo decided to dump a significant amount of this water into the ocean.