One million gallons of radioactive water is inside a former nuclear power plant along Cape Cod Bay and it has got to go.

But where, is the vexing question, and will the state intervene as the company dismantling the plant decides?

Holtec International is considering treating the water and discharging it into the bay, drawing fierce resistance from local residents, shellfishermen and politicians. Holtec is also considering evaporating the contaminated water or trucking it to a facility in another state.

The fight in Massachusetts mirrors a current, heated debate in Japan over a plan to release more than 1 million tons of treated radioactive wastewater into the ocean from the wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant in spring 2023. A massive tsunami in 2011 crashed into the plant. Three reactors melted down.

Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Plymouth, Massachusetts, closed in 2019 after nearly half a century of providing electricity to the region. U.S. Rep. William Keating, a Democrat whose district includes the Cape, wrote to Holtec with other top Massachusetts lawmakers in January to oppose releasing water into Cape Cod Bay. He asked the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to examine its regulations.