TOKYO: As much as 120 tons of radioactive water may have leaked from a storage tank at the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, contaminating the surrounding ground, Tokyo Electric Power Co said yesterday.
The Japanese power company was yet to discover the cause of the leak, detected on one of seven tanks that store water used to cool the plant’s reactors, a spokesman for the company, Masayuki Ono, said at a press briefing.
The company plans to pump 13,000 cubic metres of water remaining in the tank to other vessels over the next two weeks.
Water from the leaking tank, which is located 800 metres from the coast, is not expected to reach the sea, Kyodo news wire reported earlier, citing unidentified officials from the utility.
The company did not say how long the tank had been leaking.
The storage tanks, excavated at the site in the wake of the disaster, are lined with waterproof sheets meant to keep the contaminated water from leaking into the soil
REUTERS
