Japanese media said that, starting in 2022, the government was planning to slowly dump more than 1 million tons of treated radioactive water from the Fukushima nuclear disaster into the sea.

The question of what to do with the wastewater has been a contentious point for some time, and now, the Japanese government is running out of space and time. Some of the water was used to cool the nuclear plant after a devastating earthquake and tsunami in 2011. The rest is a collection of contaminated rainwater and groundwater, and it has been collected in tanks. However, it takes up space, and it is a threat for workers because of the radiation levels.

Although the water has been filtered, some radioactive isotopes were too difficult to remove. Fishermen in the area fear that the government¢¥s decision could turn consumers away from their products.

Difficult words: contentious (causing disagreement and argument), contaminated(poisoned of polluted), isotope (an atom that has a different weight from other forms of the same atom).