USA Today / AP
28 March 2011 TOKYO — Workers at Japan’s damaged nuclear plant raced to pump out contaminated water suspected of sending radioactivity levels soaring as officials warned Monday that radiation seeping from the complex was spreading to seawater and soil. Mounting problems, including badly miscalculated radiation figures and no place to store dangerously contaminated water, have stymied emergency workers struggling to cool down the overheating Fukushima Dai-ichi plant and avert a disaster with global implications The coastal power plant, located 140 miles northeast of Tokyo, has been leaking radiation since a magnitude-9.0 quake on March 11 triggered a tsunami that engulfed the complex. The wave knocked out power to the system that cools the dangerously hot nuclear fuel rods. On Monday, workers resumed the laborious yet urgent task of pumping out the hundreds of tons of radioactive water inside several buildings at the six-unit plant. The water must be removed and safely stored before work can continue to power up the plant’s cooling system, nuclear safety officials said. The Japanese government says it does not know where radioactive water is leaking from at the plant. Government spokesman Yukio Edano earlier said some is “almost certainly” seeping from a damaged reactor core in one of the units. If so, that raises the potential for long-lasting environmental contamination in areas around the plant. …

Radiation spreading to seawater, soil in Japan

TOKYO, March 28, Kyodo (Kyodo) – Plutonium has been detected in soil at five locations at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Monday. The operator of the nuclear complex said that the plutonium is believed to have been discharged from nuclear fuel at the plant, which was damaged by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

URGENT: Plutonium detected in soil at Fukushima nuke plant: TEPCO