Tokyo -- The drip, drip, drip of bad news about Japan's tsunami-damaged nuclear power plant keeps going.
Several tanks and pipes at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi plant are suspected of leaking toxic water, the chairman of the Japanese nuclear watchdog, Shunichi Tanaka, said Monday.
Read more: Japan fed up with 'whack-a-mole' approach to Fukushima
His comments come after the much-criticized plant operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company, said over the weekend that it had detected a sharp spike in radiation levels in some of the pipes and huge containers that hold the vast quantities of contaminated water accumulating at the site.
That issue is the latest setback at the plant, where Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's government has vowed to step in to deal with the toxic water crisis that has deepened concerns in Japan and abroad about the daunting scale of the problem.
Since the massive earthquake and tsunami that hit northeastern Japan in March 2011 set off meltdowns at three of the reactors at the nuclear plant, TEPCO has been storing the enormous volumes of water contaminated at the site in a steadily growing collection of containers.
Some of the water tanks were constructed hastily as temporary storage units in the aftermath of the natural and nuclear disasters. Those makeshift containers are the ones where problems have arisen recently.
Fukushima toxic water leak a Level 3 'serious incident'.
Checking problem areas:
TEPCO said over the weekend that only a small amount of the highly contaminated water escaped from a tank this time around. But the disclosure comes just weeks after it admitted that about 300 tons of radioactive water leaked from another tank.
The latest leak doesn't appear to be as big as that, Tanaka said Monday, and it doesn't seem to have reached beyond the barriers that surround the rows of water tanks.
Several tanks and pipes at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi plant are suspected of leaking toxic water, the chairman of the Japanese nuclear watchdog, Shunichi Tanaka, said Monday.
Read more: Japan fed up with 'whack-a-mole' approach to Fukushima
His comments come after the much-criticized plant operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company, said over the weekend that it had detected a sharp spike in radiation levels in some of the pipes and huge containers that hold the vast quantities of contaminated water accumulating at the site.
That issue is the latest setback at the plant, where Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's government has vowed to step in to deal with the toxic water crisis that has deepened concerns in Japan and abroad about the daunting scale of the problem.
Since the massive earthquake and tsunami that hit northeastern Japan in March 2011 set off meltdowns at three of the reactors at the nuclear plant, TEPCO has been storing the enormous volumes of water contaminated at the site in a steadily growing collection of containers.
Some of the water tanks were constructed hastily as temporary storage units in the aftermath of the natural and nuclear disasters. Those makeshift containers are the ones where problems have arisen recently.
Fukushima toxic water leak a Level 3 'serious incident'.
Checking problem areas:
TEPCO said over the weekend that only a small amount of the highly contaminated water escaped from a tank this time around. But the disclosure comes just weeks after it admitted that about 300 tons of radioactive water leaked from another tank.
The latest leak doesn't appear to be as big as that, Tanaka said Monday, and it doesn't seem to have reached beyond the barriers that surround the rows of water tanks.
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