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Jiji Press Ticker Service

May 12, 2011 Thursday 12:02 AM JST

LENGTH: 354 words

HEADLINE: (Update) Fukushima N-Plant's Tainted Water Leaks into Sea

DATELINE: Fukushima, May 11

BODY:


Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Wednesday highly radioactive water temporarily leaked into the sea apparently from the No. 3 reactor at its crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power station.

At around 10:30 a.m. (1:30 a.m. GMT), a plant worker at the nuclear plant in northeastern Japan noticed the sound of a suspicious water flow on his way to work near a water intake of the No. 3 reactor.

It was confirmed later that radioactive water was running from power cable pipes into a pit near the water intake and that the water was leaking into the sea, Tokyo Electric officials said.

At around 6:45 p.m., Tokyo Electric stopped the water flow into the pit and the sea mainly by sealing the pit with concrete, the officials said.

In front of the intake, there are silt fences the company installed in an effort to prevent radioactive water from spreading in the sea.

Following the detection of the latest leak, water radioactivity levels stood at 4,090 becquerels per cubic centimeter inside the fences and 2,296 becquerels outside them.

The figures are very high given that water samples collected from around the water intake have so far recorded several becquerels, the officials said.

Water inside the pit, which is 2.3 meters deep, was found to have contained 79,400 becquerels per cubic centimeter of radioactive substances, including 37,000 becquerels, about 620,000 times the government-set limit, of cesium-134.

The contaminated water is believed to have come from the turbine building of the No. 3 reactor.

But radiation levels on the surface of the water inside the pit were 1.5 millisieverts per hour, far lower than 750 millisieverts recorded by water inside the basement of the building.

Tokyo Electric will investigate further to identify the reasons for the difference and confirm the source of the tainted water, the officials said.

A similar water leakage occurred previously near a water intake of the No. 2 reactor.

Since the incident, Tokyo Electric has checked to see whether water was leaking into the sea from other reactors. But the pit near the No. 3 reactor went unchecked because such work was difficult due to rubble.

LOAD-DATE: May 11, 2011