Radioactive water leak feared at Fukushima plant

The operator of Japan's stricken Fukushima nuclear plant said today that it was moving tonnes of highly radioactive water from a temporary storage tank to another after detection of signs of leakage, according to Associated Press.

The leakage comes as a blow to the plant's struggles with tight storage space.

According to Tokyo Electric Power Company, around 120 tonnes of the water were believed to have breached the tank's inner linings, with some possibly leaking into the soil. In a process that would take days, TEPCO would be moving the water to a nearby tank at the Fukushima Dai-chi the AP report said.

A spike in radiation levels in water samples collected between the inner linings of the tank led to the detection of the leak. Radiation levels in water samples taken outside the tank had also risen, an indication of the water leak, according to TEPCO spokesman Masayuki Ono.

Contaminated water at the plant, which suffered multiple meltdowns following the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami that devastated northeastern Japan, had escaped into the sea several times during the crisis, according to experts.

They suspect a continuous leak into the ocean through an underground water system. They cite the high levels of contamination among fish caught in waters just off the plant in support of their claims.

Meanwhile, according to RoketNews24, a Japanese language newsblog, it had come to light that a dinner of boiled vegetables and 3.3 square metres of floor space for sleeping were the harsh conditions awaiting laborers who undertook government-mandated decontamination work at the plant.

There are also cases in which workers are basically labouring for free when taxpayer-funded danger pay was excluded from their pay packets.

General contractors, who were at the farthest from ground zero, reaped the most benefits, as they were the ones who contracted directly with the government to take on the decontamination work.

Once contracted, the firms subcontracted work out to other companies, which did the same. There was little money left for onsite workers employed by companies, three or four steps removed from the source of funds and after each firm had taken its cut.

Workers complained that they were not treated like human beings. They said they were made to sleep in a tiny 13-square metre bungalow.

The system involves multiple subcontractors, and by the time funds reached workers the amount needed to pay danger benefits due to them was no longer there.