TOKYO, August 7 (RIA Novosti) – Every day, for more than two years, about 300 tons of radioactive water is leaked into the Pacific Ocean from the disaster-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in northern Japan, the Kyodo news agency reported Wednesday, citing the government’s top spokesman.
The plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co., plans to freeze soil around the plant’s reactor buildings to contain the contaminated groundwater, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga reportedly said, adding that the government would need to provide funding for the project.
"There is no precedent in the world to create a water-shielding wall with frozen soil on such a large scale. To build it, I think the state has to move a step further to support its realization," the state spokesman was quoted as telling reporters.
In March 2011, Japan was hit by a massive magnitude-9.0 earthquake and subsequent tsunami, claiming more than 15,000 lives and causing a number of explosions at the Fukushima plant.
In what has been dubbed the world's worst nuclear disaster after Chernobyl, three of the plant’s reactors underwent a partial meltdown as radiation leaked into the atmosphere, soil and seawater.
Some 315,000 people whose homes were near the plant are still living in a temporary housing. Japan will need at least 40 years to fully recover from the nuclear catastrophe, scientists say.
