Zee Media Bureau
Tokyo: The contaminated water underneath Fukushima’s highly-affected nuclear power station that began leaking from the reactors after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami is slowly but steadily heading towards the sea.
Experts opine that more than two years after the incident, the water is reaching the Pacific and fear that it is fast becoming a new challenge for Fukushima, making it incapable to store gallons of radioactive water.
The recent crisis is far worse than the discovery earlier this week of a leak from a tank which used to store contaminated water for cooling the reactor cores.
According to the sources, it is the fifth and most grave disaster since March 2011.
Nearly 300 ton (80,000 gallon) of contaminated water has leaked.
However, the impact of the contamination on the environment is still unclear because the radioactivity will get diluted as it would submerge into the sea.
Fishing in the nearby area has already been banned. Fishermen in nearby Iwaki City were hoping to resume test catches next month following favourable sampling results.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had earlier said that the government would intervene in the situation and allocate sufficient funds for projects dealing with the rectification of leaking reactors.
