The aftermath of the Fukushima nuclear accident lingers as Japan still pushes to discharge over a million tons of nuclear-contaminated water from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant into the Pacific Ocean.

The plant suffered core meltdowns after a magnitude-9.0 earthquake struck Japan and triggered a tsunami on March 11, 2011.

Preparations of the discharge plan are still underway despite wide criticism from domestic and international stakeholders.

Local fishing communities say their businesses and livelihoods will have to suffer reputation damage again which is slowly recovering over the past 12 years.

About 90 percent of respondents believe the Japanese government's discharge plan will have a negative impact on the image of Fukushima, and more than half said they do not understand the plan, according to a recent poll conducted by Fukushima Television and Fukushima Minpo News.

Japanese activists gathered outside the prime minister's office to protest the decision in January. Protests like this have been held in several parts of Japan and South Korea recently. Environmental impact and safety concerns have also drawn attention from neighboring countries such as China and South Korea and Pacific island nations.

On Friday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning criticized Japan's discharge plan, urging Japan not to start ocean dumping before fully consulting with the stakeholders and relevant international organizations.

Both China and South Korea urged Japan to take a responsible approach and not to arbitrarily start dumping nuclear-contaminated wastewater on a meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Board of Governors on Monday.

Leaders from multiple Pacific Island countries are calling upon the Japanese government to immediately stop its plan.

Papua New Guinea's Minister for Fisheries and Marine Resources Jelta Wong said that there is little doubt that the nuclear wastewater will find its way into ecosystems and food chains, harming people and the fisheries industries, according to a report published by InDepthNews on Monday.

However, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said earlier this month that there would be no change in the discharge plan this spring and summer.

The nuclear power plant has been generating 130 tons of wastewater tainted with radioactive substances everyday from cooling down the nuclear fuel in the reactor buildings, which has been collected and stored in about 1,000 tanks. The tanks are over 96 percent full and expected to reach their capacity of 1.37 million tons soon, Fukushima Television reported.

The plant's operator Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings (TEPCO) said there were no plans to build additional tanks. Highly radioactive water will continue to be produced, as TEPCO has still not found solutions to remove the melted-down cores.

According to the discharge plan, the nuclear-contaminated wastewater in the tanks will be diluted with seawater and then released through an undersea tunnel to a point one kilometer offshore. TEPCO began digging the undersea tunnel last August and has already completed about 800 meters.

The Japanese government has claimed that most of the radioactive materials in the contaminated water have been removed by the Advanced Liquid Processing System (ALPS).

Hideyuki Ban, co-director of Japan's Citizens' Nuclear Information Center told Japanese media that the radiation-tainted water in storage tanks still contains radioactive substances, far exceeding the safety standard.

"The treatment process can only remove some of the radioactive elements, not 100 percent. We have repeatedly asked for the data to be made public, but they have not. TEPCO has not listened to our advice," said Ban.

Ban added the discharge would affect the entire biosphere as radioactive elements will be accumulated along the food chain.

(With input from agencies)