Separating tritium from water is not only costly, but also technically challenging due to its chemical composition. Radioactive wastewater is being treated under the Advanced Liquid Processing System (ALPS), which removes all radionuclides, save for tritium. More from NextShark: 2 men pose as Fedex workers, pistol-whip Asian senior during robbery in NYC To prevent further contamination of seeping groundwater, it constructed an “ice wall” that reduces the flow of groundwater into the buildings. TEPCO estimates that the cleanup program to decontaminate affected areas and decommission the plant will take 30 to 40 years. Another 300,000 tons were dumped the following month. On April 5, 2011, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), which runs the plant, began discharging 11,500 tons of untreated water - the least contaminated of those it had stored - into the ocean. In the immediate aftermath, around 80% of the leak that reached the atmosphere had deposited over the Pacific Ocean and some rivers. The disaster has produced radioactive wastewater, which is now primarily groundwater that naturally comes into contact with the reactor buildings. More from NextShark: Police trying to identify suspects tied to break-ins targeting over 20 Asian restaurants in NC At this point, residents within a 20-kilometer (approximately 12.4-mile) radius were ordered to evacuate. This caused the backup generators to fail, which eventually resulted in three nuclear meltdowns, three hydrogen explosions and radioactive contamination. Peaking at 14 meters (approximately 46 feet) high, the waves swept over the plant’s 5.7-meter (approximately 18.7-foot) seawall, flooding the lower parts of the reactor buildings. Unfortunately, the succeeding tsunami further complicated the situation. This power source allowed pumps to continue to circulate coolant through the reactors’ cores, which, if left unaddressed, can overheat and cause a massive steam explosion. As a result, backup diesel generators automatically started. The shaking also cut the plant off from the Japanese electricity grid. Upon detecting the tremor, active reactors at the plant automatically shut down their normal power-generating fission reactions. The incident was later classified as Level 7 on the International Nuclear Event Scale (INES), joining Chernobyl as the only two disasters to ever receive the designation. Japan’s biggest nuclear disaster occurred at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Ōkuma, Fukushima Prefecture, on March 11, 2011, shortly after the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. More from NextShark: Indonesia’s parliament passes landmark bill aimed at tackling sexual violence Now, as the Japanese government prepares to pump more than a million tons of treated water into the ocean, the rest of the world wonders: How did Japan arrive at such a contentious decision? Does its plan actually meet global safety standards? And what do neighboring countries have to say? However, Tokyo recently earned the blessing of the United Nations. More from NextShark: Good Samaritans hailed as heroes after saving girl from kidnapper in Hawaii restaurant Today, Japan is preparing to release "treated" radioactive water from Fukushima into the Pacific, sparking concerns among critics who fear adverse consequences to both people and the environment. The event, known as the Fukushima nuclear disaster, became the world’s most severe nuclear accident since Ukraine's Chernobyl in 1986. About 100 kilometers (around 62 miles) south of the impact, killer waves spawned another disaster, and one that would take decades to resolve: a nuclear accident. The earthquake, which lasted for six minutes, was followed by a powerful tsunami that contributed to the loss of about 20,000 lives. An undersea megathrust earthquake - with a magnitude of 9.1 - rocked the Pacific Ocean 72 kilometers (approximately 45 miles) east of the Oshika Peninsula of the Tōhoku region. On an ordinary spring day in Japan in 2011, one of the most devastating natural disasters in modern history occurred.
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