Timeline

Just what to do with the radioactive water at the stricken nuclear power plant has been an issue that has dogged successive Japanese governments over the past decade. This timeline charts key stages on the path leading to the government's controversial decision on Tuesday.

March 11, 2011

・ Struck by a magnitude-9.0 earthquake and ensuing tsunami that hit Japan's northeast, three reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant suffer core meltdowns. The plant has been generating massive amounts of radiation-tainted water since the accident as it needs water to cool the reactors.

March 2013

・ The Japanese government begins trials on ways to treat the radioactive water by using an advanced liquid processing system, known as ALPS, to remove most of the contaminants. However, substances like tritium, a radioactive byproduct of nuclear reactors, are hard to filter out.

April 2016

・ A government panel proposes several options for disposal, including by evaporation or underground storage of the tritium-laced water.

February 2020

・ A government panel releases a report claiming that sea disposal or evaporation are the most realistic options.

June 2020

・ At an ordinary general meeting, the national federation of fisheries cooperatives, known as JF Zengyoren, adopts a special resolution strongly opposing the discharge of radioactive water into the sea.

March 2021

・ Hiroshi Kajiyama, Japan's economy, trade and industry minister, tells Rafael Grossi, director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, that Japan hopes the United Nations nuclear watchdog will conduct a safety review on water disposal plans.

April 7, 2021

・ Yoshihide Suga, Japan's prime minister, meets with Hiroshi Kishi, head of the JF Zengyoren, who reiterates the fisheries organization's strong opposition sea disposal of the water. Suga says his government will soon make a decision.

April 13, 2021

・ The government decides to discharge contaminated radioactive wastewater into the sea after ministers met to formalize the plans.

Xinhua