The operator of a damaged Japanese nuclear plant restarted a water-treatment system Monday after leaks and other problems stopped the procedure. The system designed to decontaminate highly radioactive water halted only five hours into full operation on June 17 at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station. Since the plant was hit by the March 11 earthquake and resulting tsunami, it has been leaking radioactive substances into the environment. As the plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) has kept injecting water to cool the overheating reactors, radiation-contaminated water has spilled over and inundated the reactor buildings. On Monday, TEPCO started using a system to decontaminate the water from the buildings and use it to cool the reactors, a key step to bringing the troubled plant under control, according to a report of the German Press Agency "DPA". TEPCO estimated about 110,000 tons of highly contaminated water had accumulated inside the turbine buildings of reactors and nearby areas, and it feared the water could overflow into the sea again.
