The man in charge of the clean-up at Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant says growing stores of contaminated water from the site will eventually have to be dumped into the sea.
In an exclusive interview with the ABC, the chairman of the Fukushima Monitoring Committee, Dale Klein, has also admitted there are likely to be more blunders and slip-ups at the plant in the months and years to come.
"I think the best word to use with Fukushima is challenging," the former chief nuclear watchdog in the US said.
Since the 2011 earthquake and ensuing tsunami sparked the nuclear disaster, TEPCO has been pouring millions of litres of water onto Fukushima's reactors to try and keep them cool.
That radioactive water is now being stored in tanks at the site but already thousands of litres have leaked into the Pacific Ocean.
Mr Klein says the biggest challenge for TEPCO is dealing with these ever-growing volumes of contaminated water being stored at Fukushima.
He believes that after the water is treated and stripped of most radioactive elements, it will be safe to dump into the Pacific.
"At the end of the day, when the water is discharged, it will be released in a way that it's diluted," he said.
"So there's no risk to public health and safety. But it's an emotional issue."
