(CNN) -- Workers at Japan's
Fukushima Daiichi nuclear facility have discovered a
leak of 45 metric tons of radioactive water, operator
Tokyo Electric Power Company said in a statement Monday.
It's unclear whether the contaminated water reached
the Pacific Ocean.
The water was found Sunday morning inside a barrier
around an evaporative condensation apparatus, which is
used to purify sea water used at the plant to cool
reactors damaged in the 9.0-magnitude earthquake and
subsequent tsunami in March.
TEPCO said it was able to stop the leak by stacking
sandbags around a crack found in a concrete barrier
around the condensation unit. The company said the sea
water around the drain had a slightly higher level of a
radioactive substance -- cesium 137 -- than usual. TEPCO
said it is still working to see how much contaminated
water may have reached the ocean.
Fukushima
chief ill
The dual natural disasters on March 11 wreaked havoc
in Japan, killing more than 15,000 people. While many of
those died instantly, the country was on edge for weeks
as utility and government employees scrambled to prevent
a worsening nuclear catastrophe at the Daiichi plant,
located about 240 kilometers (150 miles) north of Tokyo.
Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency
eventually categorized the accident as a level-7 event
-- the highest level on an international scale for
nuclear disasters -- putting it on par with the 1986
Chernobyl disaster.
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