Fukushima: Radioactive Groundwater and Leaking Storage Container Reported

The latest news from Japan's beleaguered Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant includes announcements of radioactive water leaking from a newly built storage tank and groundwater around the plant testing positive for radioactive cesium.

Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) announced the discovery radioactive groundwater Tuesday, and that a worker had discovered the leak in the water tank on Wednesday.

Tuesday's report of cesium in groundwater was a reversal of an earlier Tepco statement that indicated the groundwater flowing into the plant at 100,000 gallons a day was not radioactive.

Wednesday's news of a leak in one of the hundreds of steel tanks used to store contaminated water was reported in a Tepco statement, which indicated the leak is slow, leaking one drop of water every three to four seconds. The New York Times reported that about one quart of water had leaked. The statement said that water transfer to the tank has been stopped and workers will tighten the tank's joints.

Fukushima Daiichi power station was inundated by a tsunami triggered by a powerful earthquake in March 2011, causing the meltdown of three of its nuclear reactors.

Contaminated water has to constantly be drawn from stricken reactors to keep it from overcoming the makeshift cooling systems in place to prevent the reactor cores from melting down again. Between the runoff and the groundwater flowing into the basements of the damaged buildings, Tepco must deal with about 400 tons of contaminated water each day. To date, about 300,000 tons of contaminated water are stored in containers at the nuclear campus; that amount is expected to double within a few years, the Associated Press reported. A recent U.N. report said it might take 40 years for the plant to be completely shut down.

Dealing with contaminated water has proven to be one of the greatest challenges for Tepco. The levels of cesium found in the groundwater, were low, reported at 0.39 becquerels of radioactive cesium-137 per liter of water. Japan's safety level for cesium in drinking water is 10 becquerels per liter, but the presence of radioactive material in the water has caused public resistance to Tepco's plan to pump the groundwater into the sea.  

This week's news is the latest in a string of setbacks at the stricken nuclear plant, which has seen power failure and additional leaks over the past several months.