Japan says poor management led to Fukushima leak

Japan’s nuclear regulators say poor management was responsible for the recent massive leak of toxic water at the Fukushima plant.

Nuclear Regulation Authority Commissioner Toyoshi Fuketa said Tuesday that poor management led to last week’s leak of about 100 tons of highly radioactive water from a storage tank.

“The failure to check the water level of the tanks that should have been receiving water was a problem from the viewpoint of preventing the situation from worsening,” said Fuketa.

Tokyo Electric Power Company, which operates the site, admitted that workers at a control room had failed to notice the problem soon enough.

Last week’s leak was the worst incident in six months at the Fukushima plant. The leaked water contained 230 million becquerels per liter of beta-ray emitting substances, consisting mainly of strontium 90.

The level was about 7.6 million times the government’s limit for nuclide water allowed to be released into the ocean.

In August 2013, some 300 tons of toxic water poured out from another storage tank at the Fukushima plant.

On March 11, 2011, a nine-magnitude earthquake triggered a tsunami that inflicted heavy damage on the six-reactor Fukushima plant. The cooling systems of the plant’s reactors were knocked out, leading to meltdowns and the release of radioactive material.