Officials from the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) have announced that the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant has been leaking radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean again.
Speaking to Reuters, TEPCO admitted that it found a leak late on Wednesday, which had likely spilled into the Pacific Ocean. The authorities explained that the contaminated water was overflowing from a storage tank, and that more than 380 litres may have leaked into the surrounding harbour by the time it was stopped.
TEPCO says the water contained 200,000 becquerels of strontium 90 — as well as some other radioactive isotopes — per litre. While the exact composition remains unclear, it’s worth pointing out that the legal limit for strontium 90 in water is 30 becquerels per litre. So, just a a little bit over, then.
Masayuki Ono, from TEPCO, admitted that the organisation just doesn’t have the capacity to contain the excess water at the plant, which is why storage tanks are overflowing. The spill spread into a large trench near the plant which leads to the Pacific, though TEPCO claims that contamination won’t pose a threat to other nations. Reassuring!
It’s the latest in a long string of mishaps at the plant: earlier this week TEPCO spilled tons of radioactive water into Fukushima’s soil, and last month another leak was deemed to be incredibly serious. Let’s hope some of the proposed solutions works out. [Reuters via Verge]