Highly radioactive water comes out of pipe

June 20, 2015

TEPCO investigating water leak at Fukushima plant

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/nuclear.html

Jun. 20, 2015 - Updated 17:33 UTC+2

Officials in charge of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant say around 20 liters of highly radioactive water leaked from equipment used to treat tainted rainwater. But they say the incident poses no danger to the outside environment.

Tokyo Electric Power Company officials say the leak came to light when an alarm went off around 9 AM on Saturday. Workers found water was coming out of a joint in a pipe.

TEPCO says all of the water fell into a receptacle below the equipment.

The utility says the water contained about 24,000 becquerels per liter of beta-ray emitting substances, a very high amount.

TEPCO officials say a valve that should have been open was closed, and they believe this raised pressure in the pipes and caused the leak.

The utility is investigating to see if there was any error on the part of workers.