The Japanese government wants to start releasing purified radioactive water from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in August after receiving approval from the UN nuclear organization, the International Atomic Energy Agency, Nikkei reports, Reuters writes.

Japan won International Atomic Energy Agency approval on Tuesday for a plan to dump treated radioactive water from the tsunami-ravaged Fukushima nuclear power plant into the ocean, despite fierce opposition from Beijing and some local residents.

After a two-year review, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said Japan’s plans met global safety standards and would have “negligible radiological effects on people and the environment.”

“This is a very special night,” IAEA chief Rafael Grossi told Prime Minister Fumio Kishida before handing him a thick blue folder containing the final report.

Discharge of contaminated water will take place within 30 years

Grossi later told reporters in Japan, where he was met by a small group of protesters, that he would try to ease lingering concerns and deploy IAEA personnel to the Fukushima plant to monitor the spill.

“We have to accept that this has never happened before,” he said, adding that Japan would have the final say on the spill, which would last 30 to 40 years.

The Japanese government says the process is safe because it treated the water — enough to fill 500 Olympic-sized swimming pools — that was used to cool the fuel rods at the Fukushima nuclear power plant after it was damaged by the earthquake and subsequent tsunami.

Japan says tritium levels in Fukushima water are lower than in wastewater regularly released by nuclear plants

Japan says the water has been filtered to remove most radioactive elements except tritium, an isotope of hydrogen that is difficult to separate from water. The treated water will be diluted well below internationally approved maximum tritium levels before being released into the Pacific Ocean.

In a presentation to foreign journalists in China last month, Japanese officials said the tritium levels in the treated water were lower than in the wastewater regularly released by nuclear power plants around the world, including China.

China said on Tuesday that Japan’s comparison of tritium levels in treated and sewage water was a “completely confusing concept and misleading the public”.