A building converted to hold tons of contaminated water at the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant may be leaking.
On Wednesday plant owner Tokyo Electric Power Co. said water levels in the former waste storage building at the plant had dropped about 5 cm over the course of 20 hours. Crews have been pumping in irradiated water from the basements of reactor units at the plant flooded after the March 11 tsunami and subsequent efforts to inject water into their damaged reactors. TEPCO officials quoted by Japan Today said tests have not shown unusual radiation levels in nearby groundwater, but the utility is considering further tests using boring rods. Crews also will check to see if water has entered other parts of the waste disposal building.
Their findings could affect plans to deal with water flooding lower floors of the plant and boosting radiation doses to levels that make repair work highly difficult. Roughly 14,000 metric tons of water have been transferred to the storage facility, with pumping stopped at 9 a.m. Wednesday, Japan Time, as the volume of water approached the building's capacity.