The operator of Japan’s crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant may have to dump radioactive water from the site into the nearby Pacific Ocean, according to Japanese Environment Minister Yoshiaki Harada. On September 10, 2019, Harada suggested the drastic move in response to a warning from Tokyo Electric Power that the nuclear complex will run out of space to store contaminated water by 2022. The Fukushima plant was severely damaged by an earthquake and tsunami in 2011.