a person in a mask and a hard hat holds a geiger counter to measure radiation in front of the Fukushima nuclear power plant

Japan is poised to release nuclear wastewater into the Pacific. How worried should we be?

The plan to gradually discharge more than a million tons of treated water from the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant has deeply divided nations and scientists.

On February 21, 2021, a Tokyo Electric Power Company employee measures radiation outside its Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, devastated a decade ago by an earthquake. Japan’s planned releases of wastewater used to cool damaged reactors is stirring controversy.
Photograph by Philip Fong, AFP/Getty
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