 The IAEA has now finished its assessment of Japan's plans to release the water stored at the Fukushima Daiichi Power Plant. Our independent and comprehensive assessment confirms the plans to be in line with IAEA safety standards. The IAEA has published its findings in a report that was presented to the Japanese government. The report compiled findings from an independent IAEA safety review spanning two years. The water will be released from a tunnel a kilometre off the Japanese coast. As I promised, our work here is not yet over. Assessing a plan is not enough. My experts will come back to Fukushima repeatedly and for as long as the process takes to take samples at different locations and confirm the water remains safe. A clean ocean matters to us all. Since the crippling accident at Fukushima Daiichi in 2011, contaminated water containing radioactive particles has been stored in roughly 1,000 tanks at the site. The water contains a mix of contaminated groundwater and sea water from the accident and water used to cool the stricken reactors since. Through an advanced liquid processing system, or ALPs, this water is filtered to remove almost all radio nuclides but cannot remove tritium. Tritium is present in sea and drinking water, mainly from natural origin but also from human-made sources. In April 2021, Japan announced its decision to gradually discharge the treated water from the tanks into the sea. This will happen over the next decades once domestic regulators approve. Japan asked the International Atomic Energy Agency to conduct an independent scientific assessment of the plan in accordance with the internationally approved IAEA safety standards. We will work closely with Japan before, during and after the discharge of the water. Our cooperation and our presence will help build confidence in Japan and beyond that the water disposal is carried out without an adverse impact on human health and the environment. A task force was appointed with experts from IAEA staff as well as internationally-renowned nuclear safety experts from 11 countries. The safety review conducted by the task force was on three main parts. The first one was on technical aspect, the second on regulatory activities, and the last part of the review was dedicated to environmental and monitoring aspect. Japan has developed a system for purifying, diluting and releasing the water into the sea. Each step of this process was assessed by the task force. As a part of the safety assessment, the task force and its independent international expert visited Fukushima, the Aichi Nuka power station several times and in order to make on the ground assessment of the entire discharge process. Alps' treated water is transferred to the discharge facilities where, if needed, it is purified in a secondary treatment facility to bring the amount of radioactive material in the water below the limits set by regulatory standards, aside from tritium, which requires dilution to get below regulatory standards. The treated water is collected, analyzed again for many different radionuclides to confirm it meets national regulatory limits and prepared for release. A controlled level of water is transferred through pipes. Sea water from the surrounding area is pumped into the discharge system and used to dilute the treated water. The diluted treated water is sent through a one kilometer long tunnel and discharged within the zone restricted for commercial fishing since the 2011 accident. To help allay public concerns, Japan has decided to dilute the treated water until the tritium is at an extremely low level. One seventh of the standard the World Health Organization says is suitable for drinking water. The treated water is released into the sea is a controversial step for many people. From locals fearing the impact on their businesses to neighboring countries not wanting the water released into their backyards, there has been much debate about Japan's decision. Director-General Grossi has spent time talking with those concerned to hear their views and explain the science at the core of the agency's impartial review. As part of its review process, the IAEA is also conducting independent checks on the environmental impact of the water release. The agency has been verifying Japanese data on environmental monitoring in the area surrounding the Fukushima Daiichi plant since 2011. The IAEA will continue to check Japan's measurements of the water contained in the tanks that is ready for discharge, as well as seawater and fish samples from the surrounding environment during and after the release. This independent sampling and analysis is carried out by multiple IAEA laboratories, as well as by independent laboratories in countries such as China, France, the Republic of Korea, Switzerland and the United States to confirm the accuracy of Japan's monitoring work. The aim is to confirm that the data from Japan is comparable to the data that's produced by the other labs and to promote transparency and openness about this data. The IAEA's review does not provide authorization for Japan to release the water. That is the role of Japan's Nuclear Regulation Authority, the NRA. But the task force closely reviewed how the NRA conducted the regulatory process to ensure the approach is consistent with relevant IAEA safety standards. Reviewing safety at the site, monitoring the impact on the environment and assessing the national regulatory approval. The IAEA's comprehensive and independent safety review will continue for many decades, meeting Director General Grossi's commitment to be involved before, during and after the water is released.