"NRA signs off on TEPCO plan to release decontaminated groundwater into sea"
January 22, 2015 As reported by the Asahi Shimbun, the Japanese national government's Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) has approved the proposal by Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) to simply release radioactively contaminated groundwater from its Fukushima Daiichi site, so long as contaminants are below a certain concentration level.
The article reports:
"The water must meet certain criteria before it is released into the sea.
The conditions per liter of water are: that radioactive cesium is less than 1 becquerel; radioactive substances that emit beta rays are less than 3 becquerels; and the level of tritium is less than 1,500 becquerels.
Although TEPCO does not have the means to remove tritium at its decontamination facilities, the levels of contamination must be within safety limits."
It is not clear whether or not TEPCO will be allowed to simply "water down" tritium -- that is, dilute the tritium contamination with uncontaminated water, and then release it all, over time, into the ocean. Dilution is not the solution to radioactive pollution -- the tritium, and other contaminants, will re-concentrate up the food chain.