- The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) led a team of international experts to collect samples today of ALPS treated water stored at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station (FDNPS) prior to the water’s dilution with seawater and its discharge to the sea.
- FDNPS is the site of a major nuclear disaster in 2011 which involved a tsunami and earthquake that led to a nuclear meltdown and the release of radioactive material.
The sampling mission is the fourth under the additional measures, which focus on expanding international participation and transparency. These measures permit third parties to independently verify that water discharge which Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings (TEPCO) – operator of the FDNPS – began in August 2023 continues to be consistent with international safety standards.
International experts from Belgium, the People’s Republic of China, the Republic of Korea, the Russian Federation and Switzerland, along with IAEA staff, conducted hands-on sampling of the water stored in tanks designated for the 14th batch of ALPS-treated water to be discharged.
The IAEA initiated the first practical steps of the additional measures in October last year. This fourth mission follows the mission in April which sampled diluted water just prior to its discharge into the sea, and a mission in February when IAEA Director General Grossi presided over the additional measures to collect seawater samples in the vicinity of FDNPS.
The samples collected in today’s mission will be analysed by the participating laboratories – the Belgian Nuclear Research Centre, the China Institute of Atomic Energy, the Korean Institute for Nuclear Safety, the Institute for Problems of Environmental Monitoring of the Research and Production Association “Typhoon” in Russia and the Spiez Laboratory in Switzerland – as well as by the IAEA’s laboratory and TEPCO in Japan. All laboratories are members of the IAEA’s Analytical Laboratories for the Measurement of Environmental Radioactivity (ALMERA) network, which are selected for their high level of expertise and analytical proficiency.
Author: Bryan Groenendaal
