Fukushima nuclear plant suspected to be leaking radioactive water into Pacific Ocean

Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant is suspected to be leaking out highly radioactive water into the ground, contaminating the Pacific Ocean, the Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) said.

NRA Chairman Shunichi Tanaka said that the recent studies carried out on groundwater samples at the plant have detected high levels of cesium, tritium and other radioactive contamination.

The Japan Times reports that Tokyo Electric Power Co. (Tepco) has claimed that a pit seeping radioactive water after the nuclear crisis erupted at the plant in April 2011 is the source of contamination.

According to the report, NRA has said that the toxic water in the area may not be the only source of contamination.

The NRA also urged Tepco to speed up completion of a deeply sunken coastal containment wall between the plant and the Pacific to keep the increasingly highly radioactive groundwater from reaching the ocean.

The nation's nuclear safety guidelines require cesium-137 levels for waste liquids at nuclear plants to remain below 90 becquerels per liter, which has risen to 22,000 becquerels of cesium-137 per liter in this nuclear plant.

The water also contained 900,000 becquerels of other radioactive substances that emit beta rays, including strontium.