Radioactive water found leaking into sea from pit at Japan nuclear plant

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Radioactive water found leaking into sea from pit at Japan nuclear plant

By Nakamura, Saturday, April 2, 12:40 PM

TOKYO — Authorities discovered highly radioactive water leaking from the

crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant into the ocean Saturday, the latest

sign that the desperate strategies being used to cool the overheating reactors

could be creating new problems.

The toxic water had pooled by an almost eight-inch-long crack in the concrete

wall of a pit at the No. 2 reactor where power cables are stored, Japan's

nuclear regulatory office said. The radioactivity level in the air above the

water was measured at 1,000 millisieverts per hour, four times the maximum level

that workers can be exposed to under Japanese law.

Emergency crews poured concrete into the crack Saturday afternoon and again in

the evening in a bid to stem the leak, the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper reported.

Hidehiko Nishiyama, deputy director general of Japan's Nuclear and Industrial

Safety Agency, said the government has instructed Tokyo Electric Power Co.,

which operates the power plant, to examine the facility for other potential

leaks.

" Today we found highly irradiated water in the pit where the electricity cables

are contained, " Nishiyama said at a news conference. " It seems that there is a

crack on the side of the concrete wall of the pit. Some water is spilling out of

the crack to the sea. "

The discovery raised the disconcerting possibility that the power company's

decision to drench the reactors with tens of thousands of tons of water in an

attempt to submerge the exposed spent fuel rods is having an unintended side

effect.

Workers have scrambled to try to figure out what to do with the irradiated water

that has built up in the plant. They have put some in storage tanks and moved

some into floating barges offshore. Yet three workers laying power cables at the

plant two weeks ago suffered leg burns after stepping in a highly toxic pool of

water; they were released from a radiation hospital this week after doctors

concluded they had not suffered long-term damage.

Government officials said they had not determined the source of the radiation in

the water that was found leaking Saturday.

" We will investigate the route the water is flowing into the pit, " Nishiyama

said.

The setback undercut any momentum Prime Minister Naoto Kan had hoped to build

when he announced Friday that the government would turn its attention to

recovery and reconstruction.

Kan, making his first visit to areas affected by the March 11 earthquake and

tsunami, traveled in a Japanese military helicopter to Rikuzentakata in northern

Iwate prefecture, which had been hit hard by the twin disasters. In the city of

23,000, more than 1,000 people are dead and 1,000 others remain missing, with

13,000 living in shelters, said Noriyuki Shikata, a government spokesman.

All told, 11,938 people were killed by the quake and tsunami with 15,478

missing, according to the National Police Agency.

Kan saw " mountains of debris and rubble, basically ruins, " Shikata said. The

prime minister then visited the nuclear plant workers at a staging area about 12

miles from the plant, he added.

Meanwhile, Japan continued to receive aid from other countries, including a

German-designed robot that can be used to remove debris and help repair the

power plant, British radiation counters and gas masks and 10,000 tons of gas and

diesel from China. A 15-member advance team from the U.S. military's radiation

control squadron arrived at Yokota Air Base, to be followed by 140 Marines who

are trained to screen for radiation and prevent contamination.

Of the 32 foreign embassies in Tokyo that had suspended operations after the

earthquake, 18 have reopened, Foreign Ministry spokesman Takeshi Matsunaga said.