Japanese nuclear plant reports radioactive water leak

The operator of Japan’s crippled nuclear power plant said today that it has detected a fresh leak of radioactive water from one of the facility’s storage tanks.

Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco) previously said that two of seven underground tanks at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant had been leaking since Saturday.

Tepco said today that the latest leak involves a tank which was being used to take water from one of the two that were leaking. It said none of the radioactive water was believed to have reached the ocean.

Tepco has halted the transfer of water while looking for alternative storage.

The tanks are crucial to the management of contaminated water used to cool melted fuel rods at the plant’s reactors, which were damaged in March 2011 by an earthquake and tsunami.