Tokyo Electric Power Company, or TEPCO, the operator of the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, says it will begin next week dismantling tanks used to store treated water.

The operation will be the first since the start of the release of treated and diluted water into the ocean.

The Fukushima Daiichi plant suffered a triple meltdown in the wake of a massive earthquake and tsunami in 2011.

Water used to cool molten nuclear fuel has been mixing with rain and groundwater. The accumulated water is being treated to remove most radioactive substances, but still contains tritium. The treated water had been stored in more than 1,000 tanks at the plant.

But some of the tanks have become empty since TEPCO began to release the water into the ocean in August 2023 after the utility diluted it to reduce the tritium levels to about one-seventh of the World Health Organization's guidance level for drinking water.

The company announced on Thursday that work to dismantle empty tanks will begin on February 13 for the first time after the water discharge began about 18 months ago.

TEPCO plans to scrap 12 tanks by the end of March next year, aiming to secure space needed for decommissioning work by reducing the number of the tanks.

The company says it will build a facility associated with the retrieval of fuel debris from damaged reactors where the tanks are removed.

TEPCO says it wants to accumulate knowledge in the course of the work as it needs to scrap more than 1,000 tanks.