![Activists from environmental groups including the Environmental Health Citizens Center hold a campaign at Gwangalli Beach in Suyeong-gu, Busan, in August last year, denouncing Japan's ongoing maritime discharge of treated water from the Fukushima nuclear power plant and calling for it to be stopped. [Newsis]](https://wimg.heraldcorp.com/news/cms/2026/06/14/news-p.v1.20260613.9615cf2fd77b4e12b472445d4fb68eef_P1.jpg)
Japan's Tokyo Electric Power Company halted the discharge of treated water from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant on Saturday — the second stoppage in less than a week. The company had also suspended the release on June 10.
An alarm indicating an abnormality triggered an automatic shutdown of the maritime discharge at around 5:05 p.m. Saturday, Japanese news agency Kyodo reported. Tokyo Electric, known as TEPCO, said the alert was activated during the discharge process.
A remote inspection of the site found no equipment malfunction. TEPCO said the alarm was triggered by a drop in the volume of seawater being fed through the pumps used to dilute the treated water.
A similar alarm had sounded on June 10 during the transfer of treated water to the piping used for seawater dilution, automatically closing the discharge valve and halting the release. TEPCO resumed the discharge the following day, June 11.
TEPCO began the current round of maritime discharge from the Fukushima Daiichi plant on June 1.
This is the third discharge of the 2026 fiscal year, which runs from April 2026 through March 2027, and the 21st overall since the first release in August 2023.
Eight discharge rounds are planned for the current fiscal year — one more than the previous year — with a total projected volume of 62,400 metric tons.
Through the 19th discharge round, a cumulative 149,000 metric tons of treated water had been released, equivalent to the capacity of approximately 149 storage tanks on the Fukushima plant site.
TEPCO had planned to discharge 7,800 metric tons of diluted treated water into the ocean between June 1 and June 19. The two stoppages are expected to push back the completion date somewhat.
ygmoon@heraldcorp.com
