Published: July 16th, 2017 at 6:15 pm ET By ENENews 2,855 comments

(Above:  An employee walks past storage tanks for contaminated water at the tsunami-crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant of the Tokyo Electric Power Co. in Okuma, Fukushima Prefecture, in February. Tepco needs to release the water — which contains radioactive tritium that is not removable but considered not harmful in small amounts — into the Pacific Ocean, Chairman Takashi Kawamura said. | TOMOHIRO OHSUMI / POOL PHOTO / VIA AP, FILE)

Kyodo, Jul 14, 2017 (emphasis added): Fukushima’s tritiated water to be dumped into sea, Tepco chief says — Despite the objections of local fishermen, the tritium-tainted water stored at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant will be dumped into the sea, a top official at Tokyo Electric says. “The decision has already been made,” Takashi Kawamura, chairman of Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc., said in a recent interview with the media… As of July 6, about 777,000 tons were stored [1.54 billion pounds]… Kawamura’s remarks are the first by the utility’s management on the sensitive matter…

(Above:  The sea wall failure was most striking at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant AFP/Getty)

The Independent, Jul 15, 2017: Radioactive waste from Fukushima power plant disaster to be dumped in sea — Water tainted with tritium, a radioactive form of hydrogen, is to be released into the Pacific Ocean, says the head of the company responsible for the Fukushima clean-up operation… Local residents are furious at plans to release the radioactive tritium from the 2011 Fukushima nuclear plant, which suffered a triple meltdown, into the sea…

(Above:  Tokyo Electro Power Co.announced plans to pour radioactive tritium into the Pacific Ocean, a move that is angering locals. File Photo by Keizo Mori/UPI | License Photo)

UPI, Jul 14, 2017: Japan utility plans to dump radioactive Fukushima water into Pacific — The operator of Japan’s paralyzed nuclear plant in Fukushima has decided to release radioactive tritium into the Pacific Ocean… Technology has so far been unable to remove tritium from the water, and TEPCO’s solution is to pour the radioactive liquid into the ocean… TEPCO insists tritium poses few health hazards, but Japanese fishermen are outraged because of the announcement…

(Above:  A member of the media uses a Geiger counter at Tokyo Electric Power Company’s (TEPCO) Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant in Okuma, Fukushima, Japan, February 23, 2017. The site includes hundreds of tanks containing about 777,000 tons of water laced with tritium that TEPCO has decided to dump into the nearby sea, despite opposition from local fishermen.)

Newsweek, Jul 14, 2017: Fukushima’s Nuclear Waste Will Be Dumped Into the Ocean, Japanese Plant Owner Says — Toxic waste produced by one of the world’s worst nuclear disasters will be dumped into the sea, according to the head of [TEPCO]… Takashi Kawamura, chairman of Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), told foreign media that nearly 777,000 tons of water tainted with tritium, a byproduct of the nuclear process that is notoriously difficult to filter out of water, will be dumped into the Pacific Ocean…

The Telegraph, Jul 14, 2017: Fishermen express fury as Fukushima plant set to release radioactive material into ocean — Local residents and environmental groups have condemned a plan to release radioactive tritium from the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant into the Pacific Ocean… Around 770,000 tons of highly radioactive water is being stored in 580 tanks at the site. Many of the contaminants can be filtered out, but the technology does not presently exist to remove tritium from water… Fishermen who operate in waters off the plant say any release of radioactive material will devastate an industry that is still struggling to recover from the initial nuclear disaster…

(Above:  The Fukushima No. 1 plant and hundreds of tanks containing tritiated water are viewed from the air in February. | KYODO)

Kyodo, Jul 15, 2017: Tepco backpedals after disaster reconstruction chief knocks plan to dump tritiated water into sea — [Tepco] backed off its tritium-dumping decision Friday after disaster reconstruction minister Masayoshi Yoshino said it would cause problems for struggling fishermen… The remarks made Friday by the Fukushima native came shortly after the chairman of [Tepco] was quoted as saying that the decision… had “already been made.” After Tepco Chairman Takashi Kawamura’s remarks were widely reported, the utility scrambled to make a clarification the same day. According to Tepco’s clarification, Kawamura meant to say that there was “no problem” with the dumping plan, based on government guidelines and “scientific and technological standards.” The statement also said that no final decision had been made…

See also: Experts: Japan “wants to just drop tanks” of Fukushima nuclear waste into ocean — Americans worried over plumes hitting West Coast (VIDEO)