Report: Japan nuke plant water leaks stopped

Operator of Japan's crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex said on Wednesday it had stopped leaks of contaminated water with high levels of radiation into the ocean, Reuters reports.

On Monday, workers began using a milky bathwater dye as they frantically tried to trace the path of the radioactive water seeping into the ocean from the tsunami-damaged nuclear plant.

The crack in a maintenance pit discovered over the weekend was the latest confirmation that radioactivity continues to spill into the environment. The leak is a symptom of the primary difficulty at the Fukushima Dai-ichi complex: Radioactive water is pooling around the plant and preventing workers from powering up cooling systems needed to stabilize dangerously vulnerable fuel rods.

The plant operators also deliberately dumped 10,000 tons of tainted water -- measuring about 500 times above the legal limit for radioactivity -- into the ocean Monday to make space at a storage site for water that is even more highly radioactive.

The contaminated water dissipates quickly in the ocean but could pose a danger to workers at the plant.