Radioactive water leaks from Tepco plant

Tonnes of radioactive water was discovered to have leaked into the ground from the Fukushima nuclear plant, Japan's nuclear watchdog said on Tuesday.
About 15 tonnes of water with a low level of radiation leaked from a storage tank at the plant, on the Pacific coast 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo, the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said.
Plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co said it was still investigating the cause of the leak, which was repaired

after being discovered around noon on Tuesday.
Vast amounts of water contaminated with varying levels of radiation have accumulated in storage tanks at the plant after being used by the utility to cool reactors damaged when their original cooling systems were knocked out by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.
Tepco is trying to use a decontamination system that cleans radioactive water so it can be recycled to cool the reactors, but has encountered technical glitches.

'Mega-float' at Japanese nuclear plant

A HUGE floating structure to hold radioactive water has been berthed at the quay of Japan's disaster-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

The plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company, says the pontoon-type structure is 136 metres long, 46 metres wide and three metres high and can hold 10-thousand tonnes of water.

90-thousand tonnes of contaminated water has been stored at the facility.

Cooling systems at the Fukushima plant were knocked out when a massive 9.0-magnitude earthquake and monster tsunami struck in March.

Light winds, snow forecast near Japan nuclear plant(Video)

Rain or snow are forecast for the area around Japan's crippled nuclear reactor, over which a light wind is expected to blow from the southeast and out over parts of the country's northern region, the weather agency said on Tuesday.

The weather is important for gauging if traces of radiation leaking from the plant will reach heavily populated areas, enter the food chain, or blow out over the ocean.

The damaged Fukushima Daiichi plant, run by Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO), is about 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo.

Some 3-8 mm (0.1-0.3 inch) of rain or snow are forecast to fall over the area in the next 24 hours.

Three hundred engineers, in addition to military, police and fire department personnel, have been battling inside the danger zone to try to cool down the reactors.

Winds near the plant will blow at a speed as fast as 4 meters (13 feet) per second, the Meteorological Agency in Fukushima said, forecasting that the wind could begin blowing from the west from the evening.

Traces of radiation exceeding national safety standards have so far been found in milk and vegetables from areas around the plant.

Tiny levels of radioactive iodine have also been found in tap water in Tokyo, one of the world's largest cities, and the plant's operator said on Tuesday traces of radioactive substances had been found in the Pacific Ocean.

Many tourists and expatriates have already left Japan and many residents are staying indoors.