The operator of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has shown to the media a system to release treated and diluted water from the facility into the ocean.

Tokyo Electric Power Company completed the construction of the system on Monday. It has been building it since last August.

A gigantic pipe for diluting treated water with a massive amount of seawater has been installed in front of the No.5 and the No.6 reactors. It is about seven meters long and around two meters in diameter. The diameter of the seawater pipe is nine times that for a pipe for treated water.

An emergency shut-off valve on the system automatically stops the flow of the liquid if the flow rate does not match prescribed rates or concentrations of radioactive materials are above-permitted levels.

The operator is conducting simulator training for operators to help ensure safe operation.

Water used to cool molten nuclear fuel at the plant has been building up in onsite storage tanks. It has been filtered to remove most radioactive materials, but it still contains tritium.

The Japanese government plans to dilute it to reduce the tritium levels to about one-seventh of the World Health Organization’s safety standards for drinking water before starting to discharge it sometime around this summer.

By NHK