Highly radioactive water and plutonium has been found for the first time outside Japan’s crippled Fukushima nuclear plant.
Fukushima’s operator TEPCO said the water seeped out from the turbine building of reactor No. 2 and was found in a trench.
It was discovered to be highly radioactive, being measured at 1,000 millisieverts per hour – a dose that can cause temporary radiation sickness with nausea and vomiting for people who are exposed.
Plutonium has also been detected in soil at five locations near the crippled plant, but TEPCO says the radioactive metal is not harmful to humans.
The radioactive metal is believed to have been discharged from nuclear fuel at the plant, which was damaged by an earthquake and tsunami on March 11.
Chief cabinet secretary Yukio Edano told a press conference the highly radioactive water found in the basement of the No. 2 reactor’s turbine building is “believed to have temporarily had contact with fuel rods (in the reactor’s core) that have partially melted”.
Removal of highly radioactive water in the reactors at the plant is necessary to reduce the risk of more workers being exposed to radioactive substances.
The number of workers who have been exposed to radiation exceeding 100 millisieverts at the plant came to 19 as of Monday, plant operator TEPCO said.
Mr Edano also urged evacuees from the 20-kilometre exclusion area around the plant not to temporarily return home to collect household belongings, citing ”great risks of radiation contamination” in the zone.
Japan’s health ministry has asked water purification plants across the country to stop taking in rainwater and to cover pools with tarpaulins to shield them from radiation from the nuclear plant.
It is feared that fresh rainfall could capture radioactive elements that have escaped from Fukushima.
The number of people confirmed dead or listed as missing following the twin disasters has climbed above 28,000, with 10,901 confirmed dead.
