Japan's Fukushima N-plant still leaking radio-active water
07 Aug 2013
Two years after disaster struck the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan, radio-active water continues to leak, polluting the surroundings and the Pacific Ocean.
Japanese authorities are looking for ways to plug the leak of radiation-contaminated water from the wrecked Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant into the Pacific Ocean, which is posing serious threat to the environment.
An estimated 300 tonnes of contaminated water from the failed Fukushima nuclear plant has been leaking into the ocean each day for the past two years, government sources said.
Tokyo Electric Power Co, the operator of the plant, had in July admitted that radioactive water at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station had seeped into the ground and contaminated the sea, although they could not explain how and what caused the leak.
Tokyo Electric, however, has been incapable of containing the disaster at Fukushima Daiichi, and their actions have often adversely affected clean-up operations and worsened contamination on-site and its surrounding areas.
Tepco has been relying on chemicals injected into the ground to prevent contaminated water from reaching the Pacific Ocean, but the effect was that the water so collected spilled over the barriers and continued to flow into the ocean.
Experts from Japan and around the world are now demanding that the Japanese government intervene and remove Tepco from the management of the site.
Officials from Fukushima prefecture who visited the areas near an underground tunnel that is thought to be filled with contaminated water, have asked the government to intervene with the critical emergency situation at Fukushima Daiichi and ensure the arrest of leakage of contaminated water into the Pacific Ocean.
The officials also asked the central government to take control and responsibility for the decommissioning of the damaged reactors.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has, meanwhile, pledged concerted efforts to stem the leakage of radioactive water. He also ordered the minister of economy, trade and industry to coordinate the steps.
The clean-up at the tsumani- and quake-hit nuclear power plant is expected to take more than 40 years and cost over $11 billion.
