Japan has approved a plan to release more than one million tonnes of contaminated water from the destroyed Fukushima nuclear plant into the sea, writes BBC.

The water will be treated and diluted so radiation levels are below those set for drinking water.

But the local fishing industry has strongly opposed the move, as have China and South Korea.

Tokyo says work to release water used to cool nuclear fuel will begin in about two years.

The final approval comes after years of debate and is expected to take decades to complete.

Reactor buildings at the Fukushima power plant were damaged by hydrogen explosions caused by an earthquake and tsunami in 2011. The tsunami knocked out cooling systems to the reactors, three of which melted down.

More than a million tonnes of water have been used to cool the melted reactors.