The International Atomic Energy Agency suggested on Wednesday the operator of a damaged Japanese nuclear plant should consider discharging radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean, dpa reported. "Controlled discharge is a regular practice in all the nuclear facilities in the world. And what we are trying to say here ... is to consider this as one of the options to contribute to a good balance of risks and to stabilize the facility for the long term," said Juan Carlos Lentijo, who led an IAEA team to Japan, said in Tokyo. The Tokyo Electric Power Co "should prepare appropriate safety and environmental impact assessments and submit them for regulatory review," the agency said. The team spent 10 days observing the decommissioning process at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, 230 kilometres north-east of Tokyo. The plant suffered meltdowns at three of its six reactors after being hit by an earthquake and tsunami on March 2011.
