Japan To Start Releasing Fukushima Wastewater

Japanese government announced Tuesday it has decided to start releasing nuclear-contami­nated wastewater from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant into the ocean on Thursday，weather conditions permitting.

Despite raging opposition from both home and abroad，Prime Minister Fumio Kishida an­nounced the controversial decision following a ministerial meeting held on Tuesday morning.

Representatives of the country's fishing in­dustry on Monday reiterated their firm opposi­tion to the ocean discharge plan during Kishida's meeting with the head of Japan's national fish­eries federation in hopes of gaining understand­ing.

Hit by a magnitude-9.0 earthquake and an ensuing tsunami on March 11，2011，the plant suffered core meltdowns that released radia­tion，resulting in a level-7 nuclear accident，the highest on the International Nuclear and Radio­logical Event Scale.

The plant has been generating a massive amount of water tainted with radioactive sub­stances from cooling down the nuclear fuel in the reactor buildings，which are now being  stored in about 1，000 storage tanks.

In 2015，the Japanese government and the Tokyo Electric Power Company，the operator of the plant，made an agreement with fisheries co­operative associations of both Fukushima pre­fecture and the nation that they will not proceed with any wastewater disposal ”without the un­derstanding of relevant parties”.

A total of 88.1 percent surveyed expressed concerns over the government's plan to dis­charge treated radioactive wastewater into the ocean，as the disapproval rate of the Kishida- led cabinet rose to an eight-month high，accord­ing to the latest opinion poll conducted by the national news agency Kyodo.

日本政府22日宣布，决定在天气条件允许的情况下，于24日开始将受地震破坏的福岛第一核电站的核污染水排入大海。（剩余406字）