Treated water releases from the Fukushima Dai’ichi nuclear power plant: An overview of the decision-making process and governing institutions

Abstract

In August 2023, the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), with permission of the Japanese government, began to release treated water stored on the site of the Fukushima Dai’ichi nuclear power plant into the Pacific Ocean. Given their unprecedented nature in terms of scale and duration, with over one million tons of water to be released over thirty years, the releases have drawn international scholarly attention from marine policy, law, conservation and social sciences, as well as from policy and science-media sectors more widely. The purpose of this communication is therefore to provide an international audience with an outline of the processes through which the decision to release the treated water was made; and of the institutions and policy frameworks that govern the treated water releases from Fukushima Dai’ichi.