Japan will release more than a million tonnes of treated water from the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant into the ocean, the government said Tuesday, triggering a furious reaction from China and fierce opposition from local fishing communities.

The process is not likely to begin for several years and could take decades to complete, but it has already stirred significant controversy.

Within hours of Japan's announcement, China called the decision "extremely irresponsible".

Japan's government argues the release is safe because the water is processed to remove almost all radioactive elements and will be diluted.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has endorsed the release, which it says is similar to the disposal of waste water at nuclear plants elsewhere in the world.

Japan's Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga told a ministerial meeting that disposing of the water was an "inevitable task" in the decades-long process of decommissioning the nuclear plant.

He said the release would happen only "after ensuring the safety levels of the water" and alongside measures to "prevent reputational damage".

Around 1.25 million tonnes of water have accumulated in tanks at the nuclear plant, which was crippled after going into meltdown following a tsunami in 2011.

It includes water used to cool the plant, as well as rain and groundwater that seeps in daily.

An extensive pumping and filtration system known as "ALPS (Advanced Liquid Processing System)" extracts tonnes of newly contaminated water each day and filters out most radioactive elements.

But local fishing communities fear releasing the water will undermine years of work to restore confidence in seafood from the region.

"They told us that they wouldn't release the water into the sea without the support of fishermen," Kanji Tachiya, who heads a local fisheries cooperative in Fukushima, told NHK ahead of the announcement.

"We can't back this move to break that promise and release the water into the sea unilaterally."

Tomoaki Kobayakawa, president of plant operator TEPCO, said it would "take thorough measures to prevent bad rumours" affecting local industries.

- 'There is no scandal here' -

China's foreign ministry slammed Japan's decision, saying it had been taken "without regard for domestic and foreign doubts and opposition".

"This approach is extremely irresponsible and will seriously damage international public health and safety," it said.

South Korea's foreign ministry also called it "a risk to the maritime environment".

The US State Department, however, said Japan had been "transparent about its decision, and appears to have adopted an approach in accordance with globally accepted nuclear safety standards".

Debate over how to handle the water has dragged on for years, as space to store it at the site runs out.

A government panel earlier endorsed either diluting the treated water and releasing it into the ocean or releasing it as vapour, and the IAEA says either option is acceptable.

"Releasing into the ocean is done elsewhere. It's not something new. There is no scandal here," IAEA director general Rafael Mariano Grossi said last year.

Either method would be "in line with well-established practices all around the world", he added.

Anti-nuclear activist group Greenpeace hit out at Japan's government for having "once again failed the people of Fukushima".

"The cabinet's decision failed to protect the environment and neglected the large-scale opposition and concerns of the local Fukushima residents, as well as the neighbouring citizens around Japan," said climate and energy campaigner Kazue Suzuki.

The ALPS filtration process removes most radioactive elements from the water, but some remains, including tritium.

Government spokesman Katsonobu Kato said Tuesday that the water would be diluted to contain tritium at levels far below either domestic or WHO standards, with the IAEA monitoring the process.

Experts say the element is only harmful to humans in large doses and with dilution the treated water poses no scientifically detectable risk.

"There is consensus among scientists that the impact on health is minuscule," Michiaki Kai, an expert on radiation risk assessment at Japan's Oita University of Nursing and Health Sciences, told AFP before the decision was announced.

But lawyers and local plaintiffs who have filed class-action lawsuits for damages against TEPCO and the government demanded the "immediate withdrawal" of the decision.

"Releasing the water into the ocean will return to haunt us," they said.

Understanding the plan to release treated Fukushima water
Tokyo (AFP) April 13, 2021 - Japan's decision to release more than one million tonnes of treated radioactive water from the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant into the sea has stirred fierce controversy.

Here are some questions and answers about the plan, expected to take decades to complete.

What is the processed water?

Since the 2011 nuclear disaster, radioactive water has accumulated at the plant, including liquid used for cooling, and rain and groundwater that has seeped in.

An extensive pumping and filtration system known as "ALPS (Advanced Liquid Processing System)" extracts tonnes of newly contaminated water each day and filters out most radioactive elements.

Plant operator TEPCO has built more than 1,000 tanks to hold some 1.25 million tonnes of processed water at the site, but they will be full by the second half of 2022.

The ALPS process removes most of the radioactive isotopes to levels below international safety guidelines for nuclear plant waste water.

But it cannot remove some, including tritium, a radioactive isotope of hydrogen that experts say is only harmful to humans in very large doses.

The half-life of tritium -- the time needed for one half the atoms of a radioactive isotope to decay -- is 12.3 years. In humans, it has an estimated biological half-life of 7-10 days.

How will it be released?

Japan's government has backed a plan to dilute the processed water and release it into the sea.

The government says the process meets international standards, and it has been endorsed by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

"Releasing into the ocean is done elsewhere. It's not something new. There is no scandal here," IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi has said.

The release is not likely to begin for at least two years and will take decades.

Government spokesman Katsunobu Kato said the dilution would reduce tritium levels to well below standards set domestically and by the WHO for drinking water, with IAEA supervision.

Why is it controversial?

Environmental groups like Greenpeace, which opposes nuclear power, say radioactive materials like carbon-14 that remain in the water can "be easily concentrated in the food chain".

They allege accumulated doses over time could damage DNA, and want to see the water stored until technology is developed to improve filtration.

Local fishing communities worry that years of work to convince consumers that Fukushima's seafood is safe will be wiped out by the release.

"The message from the government that the water is safe is not reaching the public, that's the huge problem," an official with the association of Fukushima fishermen unions told AFP.

He said trading partners had warned they would stop selling their products and consumers had said they would stop eating Fukushima seafood if the water is released.

"Our efforts in the past decade to restore the fish industry will be for nothing."

What about Fukushima seafood?

The government says radioactive elements in the water are far below international standards, pointing out waste water is regularly discharged from nuclear plants elsewhere.

Even releasing all the stored water in a single year would produce "no more than one-thousandth the exposure impact of natural radiation in Japan," the foreign ministry said in a reply to a UN report.

For food, Japan nationally sets a standard of no more than 100 becquerels of radioactivity per kilogram (Bq/kg), compared to 1,250 Bq/kg in the European Union and 1,200 in the US.

But for Fukushima produce, the level is set even lower, at just 50 Bq/kg, in a bid to win consumer trust. Hundreds of thousands of food items have been tested in the region since 2011.

What do scientists say?

Michiaki Kai, an expert on radiation risk assessment at Japan's Oita University of Nursing and Health Sciences, said it was important to control the dilution and volume of released water.

But "there is consensus among scientists that the impact on health is minuscule", he told AFP.

Still, "it can't be said the risk is zero, which is what causes controversy".

Geraldine Thomas, chair of molecular pathology at Imperial College and an expert on radiation, said tritium "does not pose a health risk at all -- and particularly so when you factor in the dilution factor of the Pacific Ocean".

She said carbon-14 was also not a health risk, arguing chemical contaminants in seawater like mercury should concern consumers more "than anything that comes from the Fukushima site".

"I would have no hesitation whatsoever" eating Fukushima seafood, she added.

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