Some 7,800 liters of water leaked from a fuel rod storage pool and reactor cooling systems in the disabled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant on Jan. 29.
Some 7,800 liters of water leaked from a fuel rod storage pool and reactor cooling systems in the disabled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant on Jan. 29.
Officials of Tokyo Electric Power Co., operator of the facility, said leaks were detected in 14 places after pipes ruptured because of freezing weather.
They said the leaks did not affect the plant's cooling operations.
The leaked water was supplied from a nearby dam to cool reactors and processed radioactive water.
Of the 7,800 liters, about 40 liters of water leaked from a heat exchanger installed to cool water at 9:35 a.m., causing the cooling system for the No. 4 reactor to shut down temporarily.
The government declared in December that the crisis at the plant, triggered by the Great East Earthquake last March, had been brought under control, reaching a state of “cold shutdown.”
Decommissioning the reactors at the facility is expected to take decades. But with problems still occurring even now, it remains uncertain how long the process will take.