
Officials with Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) said radioactive water may now be leaking from a wastewater storage facility at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, according to ABC News.
TEPCO said May 26 that nearly 60 tons of radioactive water may have spilled out. The leak was discovered amid efforts to transfer contaminated water from units 2 and 3 to an improvised storage facility. TEPCO was quoted as saying the water level in the facility dropped nearly two inches in 20 hours, suggesting a leak.
Since the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that damaged parts of the power plant, workers have been pumping water in an effort to cool three of the plant’s six reactors. Fuel rods in units 1, 2 and 3 have partially melted down, forming holes in the reactor vessels and causing leaks.
TEPCO said it is committed to a plan to bring the plant to a cold shutdown in nine months.
A group from the International Atomic Energy Agency arrived in Japan May 24 on a fact-finding mission and plan to visit the Fukushima plant.
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