Video: Radioactive water leaking into ocean through crack in reactor pit
Highly radioactive water is leaking directly into the sea from a damaged pit near the crippled reactor at the Fukushima nuclear power plant.
Radioactive water leaking into ocean in Japan 
TOKYO, April 2 (Kyodo) – Water with high levels of radiation has been confirmed to have seeped into the sea from the No. 2 reactor at the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, government officials said Saturday, raising wider fears of environmental contamination by the release of radioactivity. The water has been leaking into the sea from a 20-centimeter crack detected at a pit in the reactor where power cables are stored, the government’s nuclear safety agency said, adding that Tokyo Electric Power Co., known as TEPCO, is ready to encase the fracture in concrete. The first detection of tainted water flowing out into the Pacific Ocean could force the government and the operator to limit further expansion of radioactive contamination, likely hampering efforts to restore the crippled cooling functions at the complex. The government ”wants (the utility) to start the operation of covering the crack in concrete as soon as possible,” said Hidehiko Nishiyama, a spokesman for the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency. ”We will also check whether there are cracks at other reactors as soon as possible,” he added. The radiation level in the pit at the No. 2 reactor was more than 1,000 millisieverts per hour, according to the agency. TEPCO noted that it will analyze how much radioactive materials are in the water found in the pit. …
Tainted water confirmed to have seeped into sea from nuke plant 
By DAVID E. SANGER and DAVID JOLLY
Published: April 1, 2011 WASHINGTON — Energy Secretary Steven Chu said Friday that roughly 70 percent of the core of one reactor at the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan had suffered severe damage. His assessment of the damage to Reactor No. 1 was the most specific yet from an American official on how close the plant came to a full meltdown after it was hit by a severe earthquake and massive tsunami on March 11. Japanese officials have spoken of “partial meltdown” at some of the stricken reactors. But they have been less than specific, especially on the question of how close No. 1 — the most badly damaged reactor — came to a full meltdown. … In addition to the severe damage at Reactor No. 1, the Energy Department said that Reactor No. 2 had suffered a 33 percent meltdown. Mr. Chu cautioned that the figures were “more of a calculation” because radiation levels inside the plant had been too high for workers to get inside, and sensors were unreliable. He called the nuclear crisis in Japan “a cascade of events” that led to multiple failures of backup systems. He told reporters at a breakfast that while officials were reviewing the accident to see if American nuclear plants needed significant changes, he did not want to overreact or rush into changes whose effects might not be fully understood. “First and foremost, we are trying to make sure that fuller damage is not done,” he said. Questioned about the long-term effects of Japan’s effort to “feed and bleed” the reactors — pouring in cooling water, then releasing it as steam into the atmosphere — he said there was an effort now under way to “minimize the release” of radioactivity into the air. “They’re trying to reach a steady state,” he said, in which cooling could take place with minimal radioactive releases into the atmosphere. …
