Part 3/14:

To address this, TEPCO planned a controlled release of treated water into the ocean, after purifying it through a process called Advanced Liquid Processing System (ALPS). This system filters out most radioactive elements, but a persistent isotope—tritium—remains. Tritium, a radioactive form of hydrogen, exists naturally in small amounts and cannot be easily removed because it is chemically indistinct from regular water (H₂O). The levels of tritium in the released water are reported to be extremely low—below safety thresholds set by Japanese and international standards.