IAEA approves Japan’s Fukushima nuclear power plant treated water discharge plan

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), a specialist agency of the United Nations, announced on Tuesday that Japan’s plan to release treated water, currently stored at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant (NPP), into the sea, was consistent with the IAEA Safety Standards. The Fukushima Daiichi NPP, owned and operated by Tokyo Power Company (Tepco), was wrecked by the tsunami triggered by the massive Tōhoku earthquake in March 2011.  The earthquake knocked out the primary cooling systems for the NPP, and the tsunami disabled the backup cooling systems for three of the NPP’s reactors, causing them, despite being in shutdown mode, to overheat and suffer meltdowns. The reactors had to be cooled by pumping water into them, which contaminated the water, which was then collected and stored in a rapidly-constructed tank farm at the NPP.