Photo of workers wearing protective gears take a survey near tanks of radiation contaminated water at Fukushima nuclear plant
Tokyo:
Some of the hundreds of tonnes of radioactive water which leaked from a tank at Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear plant may have flown into the sea, the plant's operator said today.
Tokyo Electric Power Corporation (TEPCO) is desperately trying to seal a tank at the plant which has leaked about 300 tonnes of radioactive water.
Spokesman Tsuyoshi Numajiri said traces of radioactivity were detected in a drainage stream.
"There is a possibility that earth and sand contaminated with the leaked water flowed into the drainage. We cannot rule out the possibility that part of the contaminated water flowed into the sea," he said.
"We intend to make detailed examinations of the matter."
A TEPCO official said the leak was earlier thought to be continuing from the tank but its source had not yet been pinpointed.
The company was also "hurriedly checking" if any of 350 similar tanks at the plant were also leaking.
Numajiri said workers are removing soil contaminated by the leaked water, and pumping the remaining water from the leaky tank.
He said there were no significant changes in radiation levels outside the plant.
An earthquake-generated tsunami knocked out reactor cooling systems and sparked meltdowns at the plant beside the Pacific in March 2011, in the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl in 1986.
Tokyo Electric Power Corporation (TEPCO) is desperately trying to seal a tank at the plant which has leaked about 300 tonnes of radioactive water.
Spokesman Tsuyoshi Numajiri said traces of radioactivity were detected in a drainage stream.
"There is a possibility that earth and sand contaminated with the leaked water flowed into the drainage. We cannot rule out the possibility that part of the contaminated water flowed into the sea," he said.
"We intend to make detailed examinations of the matter."
A TEPCO official said the leak was earlier thought to be continuing from the tank but its source had not yet been pinpointed.
The company was also "hurriedly checking" if any of 350 similar tanks at the plant were also leaking.
Numajiri said workers are removing soil contaminated by the leaked water, and pumping the remaining water from the leaky tank.
He said there were no significant changes in radiation levels outside the plant.
An earthquake-generated tsunami knocked out reactor cooling systems and sparked meltdowns at the plant beside the Pacific in March 2011, in the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl in 1986.
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