Water contaminated with radioactive materials might have leaked into the sea from the Japanese nuclear plant that was the site of the world's worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl, dpa quoted the facility's operator as saying Friday. The Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) estimated 12 tons of tainted water was dumped into the ocean Thursday when it leaked from a pipeline carrying the water from a desalination unit to a storage tank. The leak at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, 250 kilometres north-east of Tokyo, was stopped after a half-hour, the utility said. A similar leak was reported March 26, reviving concerns about the stability of the plant, which went into meltdown after the March 11, 2011, earthquake and tsunami cut power to the facility and shut down its cooling systems. Residents living within 20 kilometres of the plant were evacuated, and they have yet to return home. The leaks came after the government declared in December that a cold shutdown had been achieved at the plant and it was under control. Environmentalists criticized the announcement as a deception of the public, saying the reactors were far from stable. The government admitted at the time that up to 40 years would be needed to decommission the plant and clean up the area around it. After the disaster as the reactors were overheating, causing fires and explosions, workers sprayed them with water. The removal of that water, now contaminated, remains one of the biggest problems for TEPCO.
