Highly radioactive water leaked out of a treatment facility at the tsunami-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. No one was injured, and the utility operator did not detect any radiation impact on the environment on Thursday, ABC News reported.
A plant worker discovered the leak on Wednesday morning while checking valves on a SARRY treatment machine designed to remove cesium from contaminated water, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings reported.
TEPCO estimated that about 5.5 metric tonnes (6 tonnes) of radioactive water leaked out through an air vent, leaving a puddle of water on an iron plate outside and seeping into the soil around it. TEPCO reported that the radioactive water did not leak out of the complex.
The leak may have been caused by valves accidentally left open when workers were cleaning the machine with filtered water. TEPCO reported that 10 of the 16 valves that should have been closed were left open during the flushing process, and the leak ceased when the valves were closed.
Radiation levels around the plant and inside gutters on the compound have not increased.
The filter machine is part of TEPCO’s wastewater release project, which commenced in August. Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant has suffered three accidents since the 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
The latest leak comes just a few months after another accidental leak at a separate treatment facility called the Advanced Liquid Processing System (ALPS). As a result of the accident, four workers were sprayed with liquid radioactive waste while cleaning the ALPS pipework, with two of them hospitalised due to skin contamination.
The releases, which are expected to continue for decades, have sparked strong opposition from fishing groups and neighbouring countries, including China, which immediately banned imports of all Japanese seafood.
