Radioactive water leaks inside Japan plant

This photo taken in June 2011 shows the No. 3 reactor building of Kyushu Electric Power Co.'s Genkai plant in the town of Genkai, southwestern Japan. Radioactive water leaked inside the nuclear power plant, but the contaminated water did not escape into the environment, the government said Dec. 10, 2011. / AP Photo/Kyodo News

TOKYO - Radioactive water leaked inside a nuclear power plant in southwestern Japan but did not escape into the environment, the government said Saturday.

The leak Friday at Kyushu Electric Power Co.'s Genkai plant occurred as Japan attempts to stabilize a tsunami-hit nuclear plant on its northeastern coast where three reactor cores melted and large amounts of radiation were released into the air and ocean.

Tetsuya Saito, spokesman for Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, said 1.8 tons of radioactive water leaked from a pump in Genkai's No. 3 reactor, and the cause was still under investigation.

The water was funneled into a storage area and posed no safety risk, he said.

Kyushu Electric issued a statement Friday about a pump problem but did not mention the leak. Officials at the utility were not immediately available for comment Saturday.

"There have been various problems at Genkai," Saito said. "But there is no safety problem as a result of what happened this time."

Japan: Crippled nuke plant stable by year's end

He said it was up to Kyushu Electric to determine whether to announce the leak.

Genkai Mayor Hideo Kishimoto complained that the utility has not been fully open with information.

"The local government needs to know," Kyodo News agency quoted him as saying. "I have repeatedly demanded the utility change its ways."

Last month, Kyushu Electric restarted Genkai's No. 4 reactor after it automatically shut down following an abnormality in a steam condenser that did not cause any radiation leaks or injuries. The No. 3 reactor was halted for a routine inspection when the pump problem developed.

The government has said it will gradually decrease Japan's dependence on nuclear power and has sought to restart nuclear plants halted for inspections.

On Friday, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda said work to stabilize the tsunami-hit Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant was on track.

Noda said temperatures in the three melted reactor cores have fallen below the boiling point and radiation leaks have declined. But some experts say the state of the cores won't be known for years.

A March 11 earthquake and tsunami destroyed the plant's power and cooling systems, in the world's worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl.

Radiation believed to be from Fukushima has been detected in a wide range of Japanese products, including rice, beef, fish and baby formula.

[Lerianis4]

A very SMALL amount of radiation, less than background radiation levels. Let's have the whole story here, CBSNews.

[hirichardhi]

A tip to all you journalists writing stories about Japan's Daichi/Fukushima meltdowns: Just quit using "Chernobyl" in the stories you write, as in: "the world's worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl." Just write as it should be: The world's worst (by far) nuclear disaster. Stop sugar coating it already!

[perrycbs1]

I have worked in both fossil and nuclear power plants: Power plants - fossil power plants and nuclear power plants have equipment issues all the time as things do wear out and do break down (just like your car wears out and breaks down). Leaks in various places are common. Because of this they are designed to have such leaks without affecting overall safety. Because of this these plants have redundant equipment and are designed to be able to safely shutdown when there is such a problem. Where is the story here? They say that the water was channeled safety to a storage area (one that was pre-planed for just such a leak). This will be fixed in due time (be it a couple of days or a couple of weeks depending on the exact problem) and the wold will go on.

From a technical standpoint this is about as newsworthy as the fact that someone had a flat tire on their car and safely pulled over to the side of the road.

Now I will admit that not designing the Fukushima plant to handle historically known tsunamis for the region - and the results when one hit - is a different situation. However, the tsunamis outright killed about 20,000 people and did many hundreds of billions of damage to property and local industry. No one has died from the nuke plant disaster and while it will be costly to recover - those cost are a very small fraction of the overall cost of the tsunamis. I.e.; lets apply a little perspective.

[kbbpll]

Why is it that whenever somebody says "posed no safety risk", it immediately makes me want to go out and buy plastic sheet and duct tape?