Japan wants to dump radioactive water from Fukushima in the ocean, prompting outcry from local fishermen and neighbouring countries.
The country's government has proposed gradually releasing the contaminated water into the ocean or letting it evaporate. Doing so would "stably dilute and disperse it", the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said.
There is more than a million tonnes of contaminated water following the 2011 earthquake and tsunami which damaged the Fukushima nuclear plant.
And the radioactive water continues to accumulate, as the plant needs the water to keep cooling its reactor cores.
For years, the government has debated what to do with the water, but the latest proposal has narrowed the options to either releasing the water into the ocean or letting it evaporate - or a combination of both.
Options like continuing to store the water in tanks to injecting it deep into the ground have now been ruled out, The New York Times reported.
Just how safe the water is has been the subject of controversy. The government previously said it was safe for release, but now officials say it will need to be treated again before being let into the sea.
TEPCO, the company that runs the powerplant, initially said the majority of the water was safe, before later admitting only a fifth of it had been properly treated.
Despite the government's claims, many people have fears over the water's safety.
Local fishermen and consumers are worried it will destroy fish life in the area, and neighbouring South Korea has also expressed concerns over the environmental impact of releasing the water.
The Japanese government said that releasing the water in the way it proposes would only increase radiation levels to thousands of times less than the impacts humans get from the natural environment, according to the Associated Press.
It is estimated that the release of the water in such a way would take place over decades.
