The government has assessed that Japan will release contaminated water from the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant three more times through next March. 

First vice minister of government policy coordination Park Gu-yeon revealed the assessment during a daily briefing on the water release on Thursday based on data disclosed by plant operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company(TEPCO).

Park said two out of the three sets of the K4 tank group are estimated to hold seven-point-eight million liters of wastewater each, which currently are likely to be released in the second and third rounds of discharge. 

In the first round of discharge between August 24 and this Monday, nearly seven-point-eight million liters of contaminated water from one of the sets of the K4 tank group was released.

Park said through next March, some five trillion becquerels of tritium will be released into the ocean via four rounds of discharge. That’s far less than the 22 trillion becquerels capped by TEPCO as the annual level of tritium to be released from the Fukushima plant.