<span style="color: #222222;">Japan will release more than 1 million tonnes of contaminated water from the destroyed Fukushima nuclear plant into the sea, the government said on Tuesday. The first release of water will take place in about two years, giving plant operator Tokyo Electric Power time to begin filtering the water to remove harmful isotopes, build infrastructure and acquire regulatory approval.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">  </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Japan has argued the water release is necessary to press ahead with the complex decommissioning of the plant after it was crippled by a 2011 earthquake and tsunami. It says similarly filtered water is routinely released from nuclear plants around the world.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">  </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Nearly 1.3 million tonnes of contaminated water, or enough to fill about 500 Olympic-sized swimming pools, is stored in huge tanks at the plant at an annual cost of about 100 billion yen ($912.66 million) and space is running out. Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said releasing the  treated water is an unavoidable task to decommission the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant and reconstruct the Fukushima area. The process  will take decades to complete.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">  </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">The decision comes about three months ahead of the postponed Tokyo Olympic Games, with some events to be held as close as 60 km from the wrecked plant. Former Japanese Minister Shinzo Abe in 2013 assured the International Olympics Committee in pitching for the games that Fukushima will never do any damage to Tokyo.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">  </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Tepco plans to filter the contaminated water to remove isotopes, leaving only tritium, a radioactive isotope of hydrogen hard to separate from water. Tepco will then dilute the water until tritium levels fall below regulatory limits, before pumping it into the ocean.</span>