The Tokyo Electric Power Company(TEPCO), the operator of Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant, said it has started checking tritium levels in a sample of treated and diluted wastewater before beginning the discharge on Thursday.

At around 7:33 p.m. Tuesday, TEPCO sent about a ton of wastewater to the dilution facility, after which the water was mixed with one-thousand-200 tons of seawater in a tank.

The level of tritium, which cannot be removed through Japan's water treatment process using the Advanced Liquid Processing System, is being measured to verify that the level is under one-thousand-500 becquerels per liter.

Japan's Kyodo News reported that the result is expected before Thursday, and should the level meet the standard, the plant operator is expected to transport and dilute the wastewater and begin the discharge on Thursday.

TEPCO plans to dilute and release around 460 tons of wastewater a day for the next 17 days for a total of seven-thousand-800 tons in the first phase.