Fukushima nuclear disaster: UN watchdog approves plan for water release

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A UN watchdog has said that Japan's plan to release waste water from the tsunami-wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant into the sea complies with international standards.

The International Atomic Energy Agency says the release will have a "negligible" impact on the environment.

The Fukushima facility is running out of storage space for the water, which was used to cool nuclear reactors.

Japan's plan has been opposed by China and South Korea.

Tokyo has not announced a schedule for the release and the plan still needs approval from a regulator.

In 2011, a tsunami triggered by a magnitude 9.0 earthquake flooded three reactors of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. It is regarded as the world's worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl.

 

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More than 150,000 people were evacuated from an exclusion zone around the plant, which remains in place. Decommissioning of the plant has also started, but the process could take decades.