Highly contaminated water with a radioactivity level estimated at 4,700 trillion becquerels leaked into the sea apparently from the No. 2 reactor at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, Tokyo Electric Power Co. officials said April 21.
Highly contaminated water with a radioactivity level estimated at 4,700 trillion becquerels leaked into the sea apparently from the No. 2 reactor at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, Tokyo Electric Power Co. officials said April 21.
The water leaked between April 1 and 6.
The figure is about 30,000 times higher than the radioactivity level in the low-level contaminated water TEPCO deliberately released into the sea between April 4 and April 10, which was estimated at 150 billion becquerels.
The leak, confirmed in an area near the No. 2 reactor, means the total radioactive materials released into the sea was 20,000 times the annual acceptable level.
Although contamination in seawater had been detected since late March in a large area around the nuclear power plant, the contamination route was not fully understood.
The latest figures indicate that a leak of highly contaminated water from the No. 2 reactor is likely to blame for spreading radioactive contamination at sea.