Japan’s Kyodo News says coordination is under way between the Japanese government and the Tokyo Electric Power Company(TEPCO) to begin releasing contaminated water from the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant at 1 p.m. Thursday.

Kyodo’s report on Wednesday came as TEPCO, the plant’s operator, began checking tritium levels in a sample of treated and diluted wastewater before beginning the discharge.

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.

Should the level of tritium be confirmed to be below the permissible level of one-thousand-500 becquerels per liter and if weather conditions are favorable, Japan is expected to pursue the discharge on Thursday as planned.

Tritium cannot be removed through Japan's water treatment process using the Advanced Liquid Processing System.