Radiation-tainted water leak at Fukushima Daiichi plant. Handout photo shows water believed to contain high levels of radiation leaking to the sea from a crack in the wall of a pit near the No. 2 reactor at the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Fukushima Prefecture on April 2, 2011, prior to emergency measures taken in an attempt to stop the flow. Photo courtesy of Tokyo Electric Power Co. / Kyodo

TOKYO, April 4 (Kyodo) — Tokyo Electric Power Co. began disposing of a total of 10,000 tons of water containing low-level radioactive substances in the Pacific Ocean on Monday from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant to make room to store more highly polluted water filling the No. 2 reactor turbine building, as the water is hampering the plant’s restoration work, it said. Separately from the contaminated water kept in a waste processing building, the company also said it plans to release 1,500 tons of groundwater, also containing radioactive materials, near the No. 5 and No. 6 reactors. The government said the water disposal will pose ”no major health risk” and is inevitable in order to secure safety. ”We’ve placed priority on not letting the highly radioactive flow into the sea,” top government spokesman Yukio Edano told a press conference. Removal of contaminated water at the turbine buildings of several reactors is necessary to reduce the risk to workers being exposed to radioactive substances as it hinders efforts to restore the vital cooling functions to stably cool down the reactors and spent nuclear fuel pools. The contaminated underground water also threatens the cooling functions at the No. 5 and No. 6 reactors of the plant. The latest move shows that the operator, known as TEPCO, is struggling to find places to store water containing radioactive materials spotted in various areas in the premises of the nuclear complex, located on the Pacific coast in Fukushima Prefecture. …

Tokyo Electric disposing of low radioactive water in Pacific