Water system at Fukushima breaks again

FUKUSHIMA, Japan, July 15 (UPI) -- A unit treating radioactive water at Japan's Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant was shut down after a pipe junction snapped, officials said.

About 1.3 gallons of radioactive water leaked following the break Wednesday, the plant's operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. said.

Tepco said repairing the break will require human intervention, but the high radiation levels of 100-150 millisieverts per hour in the surrounding area make it very difficult to get to the machine and it was unclear when the repairs would be completed, The Asahi Shimbun reported.

The leak occurred in a plastic pipe junction, the newspaper reported.

There are two other similar junctions in the unit, and one of them was replaced by metal parts after it broke twice, on July 10 and 12.

Although the treatment unit has been shut down, Tepco said cooling of the Fukushima reactors was ongoing using water stored in tanks.