A decade after Fukushima nuclear disaster, contaminated water symbolizes Japan’s struggles

Storage tanks for contaminated water at the Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, which was badly damaged in the 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
Credit: Philip Fong/AFP/Getty

TOKYO — Beside the ruins of theFukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, more than 1,000 huge metal tanks loom in silent testament to one of the worst nuclear disasters in history, the meltdown of three nuclear reactors 10 years ago this month.

The tanks contain nearly 1.25million tons of cooling water from the 2011 disaster and groundwater seepage over the years — equivalent to around 500 Olympic-size swimming pools — most of it still dangerously radioactive.

Running out of space to build more tanks, the government wants to gradually release the water into the sea — after it has been decontaminated and diluted — over the next three decades or more.

Even though a formal decision has yet to be announced, the government and the Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) have insisted that an ocean release is their preferred solution and that it is perfectly safe.

The only thing holding them back appears to be the Olympics […]