Japan's government has warned Tokyo Electric Power Co. after contaminated water was found to have leaked from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
Last week’s leak of highly radioactive water could have been prevented, experts said, urging TEPCO to “very quickly communicate to the public what happened and why.”
The nuclear plant operator plans to remove soil from around the area that may have been contaminated by the 5,500 liters of radioactive water that leaked.
Highly radioactive water leaked from a treatment machine at the tsunami-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, but no one was injured and radiation monitoring shows no impact to the outside environment, the utility operator said Thursday. A plant worker found the leak Wednesday morning during valve checks at a SARRY treatment machine designed to remove cesium from the contaminated water, the Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings said. An estimated 5.5 metric tons (6 tons) of radioactive water — enough to fill two ordinary backyard swimming pools — leaked out through an air vent, leaving a pool of water on an iron plate outside and seeping into the soil around it, TEPCO said, but no radioactive water escaped the compound.