Japan began a controversial discharge of treated tritium-laced water from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant on Thursday, a major step in the decommissioning process for the reactors hit by a triple meltdown following the March 2011 tsunami.

The solution, hailed as safe by the government, follows a struggle for over a decade to deal with an enormous amount of radioactive water building up in tanks on the premises of the crippled plant.

Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings (Tepco), the plant¡¯s operator, started releasing the water at 1:03 p.m. after weather and sea conditions were judged favorable. No anomalies were reported in the initial release.