Small Leak Is Reported at Fukushima Nuclear Plant
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Version 0 of 1. TOKYO — A small amount of toxic water has leaked from an underground storage pool at the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant, the plant’s operator said Sunday, two days after it reported a much larger leak from a similar storage pool. The operator, the Tokyo Electric Power Company, said that about three liters, or just over three quarts, of water was believed to have leaked from the No. 3 pool, where highly contaminated water is stored after being used to cool the damaged reactors and spent fuel of the Fukushima Daiichi plant. On Friday, the company said about 32,000 gallons of radioactive water had leaked from the neighboring No. 2 pool. While the newest leak is tiny by comparison, it has raised new public concerns about the company’s ability to safely manage the plant, where three reactors melted down in March 2011 because their cooling systems were knocked out by a huge earthquake and tsunami. That accident forced the evacuation of 160,000 people in the Fukushima region of northeastern Japan. Last month, some of the makeshift cooling systems built after the accident were stopped for days by a partial blackout that was later blamed on a short circuit caused by a rat. Major Japanese newspapers published criticisms of the company over the weekend, saying it had tried to cover up the risks from the leak reported Friday and had understated the levels of radioactivity in the water. The company said it appeared that the water had seeped through holes in plastic sheets used to protect the large underground storage pools. Industry regulators came in for criticism as well. They were widely faulted after the 2011 meltdowns for having collusive ties with power companies and turning a blind eye to safety lapses. Newspapers quoted an unnamed official at the Nuclear Regulation Authority, a newly created watchdog, as saying officials from the authority’s discredited predecessor had rubber-stamped the underground storage pools last fall without properly inspecting them. The leaks also raised worries about the apparently fragile state of the plant, where jury-rigged cooling systems connected by hundreds of yards of rubber tubing still pour water on the damaged reactor cores and fuel storage pools. Some experts say those cooling systems could fail in another large earthquake. Some experts say the plant will remain vulnerable for years, and the work of dismantling and cleaning up the damaged reactors is expected to take decades. |