Second tank leak found at Fukushima plant

Radioactive water has apparently leaked from another underground storage tank at Japan’s heavily damaged Fukushima Daiichi power plant, Tokyo Electric Power Co officials say.

TEPCO said in a statement released on Sunday that the volume of the latest leakage is small.

This comes just a day after the crippled facility said as much as 120 tons of contaminated water may have leaked from a neighboring tank.

“We have determined that a minimal amount of water was feared to have leaked from the tank although there was no decline in the level of water inside the tank,” the statement added.

The company said last week that it has briefly lost the ability to cool radioactive fuel rods in part of the plant.

The cause of the leak is yet to be determined and it is not clear how long the malfunction had been going on.

On March 11, 2011, a nine-magnitude earthquake 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 leakage of radioactive materials.

This forced tens of thousands of people from their homes and polluted nearby lands.