Contaminated Water Leaking From Fukushima Site, No Suitable Alternative Storage Options

Problems at Japan's beleaguered Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex continue to mount after some 32,000 gallons (120,000 liters) of contaminated water leaked from storage pits over the weekend and the plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco), citing lack of space, reported there is no suitable alternative location to transfer the contaminated water from the leaking storage vessels.

The contaminated water has seeped into soil from the underground storage pools at the stricken power plant.

The news follows a power outage last Friday at the makeshift cooling system and reports from earlier last month that a rat had chewed through cables and caused a power outage at the cooling facility that lasted two days.  

About 400 metric tons of contaminated water is produced every day by the cooling systems in place to keep the nuclear fuel from overheating and causing a fission reaction, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Radioactive cesium is reportedly removed from the water, but other radioactive materials remain in it as it is transferred to storage pools at the nuclear campus.

Though the water is still highly contaminated, the volume of leaked water suggests the leak is small, the Journal reports, citing Japanese officials.

The Pacific Ocean is about half a mile away from the leaking storage pool; the water is not expected to reach the ocean.

The 9.0-magnitude earthquake on March 11, 2011 off Japan's coast caused a tsunami that overcame the Daiichi nuclear campus, setting off a chain of events that caused three reactors to melt down and 160,000 people to flee their homes around the nuclear campus. In the immediate aftermath of the disaster, it is reported that Tepco released radioactive water into the nearby sea.

Reuters reported Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga's statement to reporters.

"It is extremely regrettable that incidents keep occurring at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant. The government has instructed Tepco to carry out a fundamental review of how it's dealing with the problems."

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