Japan’s Tokyo Electric Power Company has begun dumping 11,500 tons of radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean in a last-ditch attempt to make room for even more highly radioactive runoff from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
The company started releasing the water – contaminated with radioactive iodine at 100 times the legal limit – into the ocean at around 7:00 on Monday evening. One power company official grew emotional at a press conference announcing the intent to start dumping the water as he apologized to the Japanese people.
The embattled power company is trapped in a cycle that will only produce more and more radioactive runoff until cooling systems at each of the Fukushima reactors are back online. More.