Highly Radioactive Water Drop Fills the Cup in Fukushima

Tokio, Sep 2 (Prensa Latina) The Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), the operator of the Fukushima accident since 2011, reported leakage of highly radioactive water in a tube connecting two coolant liquid tanks.

The spout allows the output of one drop every 90 seconds and was repaired with special material and plastic tape.

Water samples analyzed had a high radioactivity recorded in 230 millisieverts per hour, Tepco experts said Sunday.

A day earlier, the operator of Fukushima reported new outbreaks of radiation in four places around the cooling tanks, with a reading of 1,800 millisieverts per hour, doses that would kill a human being exposed to it in just four hours.

Amid growing criticism, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe promised the world on 29 August that his government will play a bigger role in stopping highly radioactive water leaks and clean the plant.

Last week, Tepco admitted the leak of 300 tons of toxic water out of one of the large containers, with a capacity of up to a thousand tons, which could reach the Pacific Ocean with serious consecuences.

Last August, the company released the figures of radioactive water dumped into the Pacific between May 2011 and July 2013, recorded between 20 and 40 billions becquerels.

The Fukushima nuclear plant, located in the northeastern coast of Japan, became the worst nuclear disaster after the tsunami of March 11, 2011 that destroyed its cooling system, killing than 18 000 people.