Workers try to seal crack leaking radioactive water

RIKUZENTAKATA, Japan — More highly radioactive water spilled into the sea from a disabled nuclear plant through an 8-inch crack in a maintenance pit that workers found Saturday.

The water splashing into the Pacific contained levels of radioactive iodine far above the legal limit, said Japan Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency spokesman Hidehiko Nishiyama.

The contaminated water was expected to quickly dissipate into the sea and was not expected to cause any health hazard, but pooling water at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant has hampered the work of technicians trying to stabilize the complex's reactors.

Over the past 10 days, pools of contaminated water have been found throughout the plant and high levels of radioactivity have been measured in the ocean, but the crack was the first spot found where the water was directly entering the sea. A search of the plant found no other similar leaks leading directly to the ocean.

"We believe that's the only crack," said Naoki Tsunoda, a spokesman for the plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co.

Workers tried to seal the crack but could not get the concrete to dry. Next, they will try injecting polymer, Tsunoda said.

Word of the leak Saturday came as Prime Minister Naoto Kan toured the town of Rikuzentakata, his first trip to survey damage in one of the dozens of villages, towns and cities slammed by the March 11 tsunami that followed a magnitude-9.0 earthquake.

In an interview published Saturday in the national Mainichi newspaper, a worker who spent several days at the nuclear plant described difficult conditions.

Early on, he said, TEPCO ran out of full radiation suits, forcing workers to create improvised versions of items such as nylon booties to pull over their shoes. He said they used plastic garbage bags sealed with masking tape.

"It's hard to move while wearing a gas mask," he said. "While working, the gas mask came off several times. Maybe I must have inhaled much radiation."

But, he said: "I feel very strongly that there is nobody but us to do this job, and we cannot go home until we finish the work."

AP

Japan's Prime Minister Naoto Kan talks to an evacuee Saturday at a shelter in Rikuzentakata in northern Japan. The city was devastated by the earthquake and tsunami on March 11. "The government fully supports you until the end," Kan told 250 people at an elementary school serving as an evacuation center. KYODO NEWS VIA APYASUYOSHI CHIBA