Japan: Regulators tell Tepco to bring contamination under control

TOKYO, Oct. 4 (UPI) -- Tokyo Electric Power Co. was ordered to bring the massive amount of radioactive water being spewed by the damaged Fukushima No. 1 nuclear complex under control.

The Nuclear Regulation Authority President Katsuhiko Ikeda Friday told Tepco President Naomi Hirose to take steps toward fixing the situation at the Fukushima plant, Kyodo News reported.

Ikeda said "rudimentary mistakes" were made that caused the water contamination. At the crippled plant, the amount of radioactive water continues to grow daily as ground water is leaking into the reactor buildings and mixing with water used to cool the three damaged reactors.

Contaminated water is held in 1,000 tanks at the nuclear complex, however, Tepco is struggling to plug leaks in the tanks. On Thursday, Tepco said about 113 gallons of radioactive water poured out of one of the tanks and some of that water flowed into the Pacific Ocean.

"I want you to implement on-site management appropriately even if it requires bringing workers from Tepco's other nuclear power plants," Ikeda told Hirose.

Meanwhile, a system to reduce the amount to radioactive water at the Fukushima No. 1 plant stalled for a second time Friday, Kyodo reported.

The advanced liquid processing system, or ALPS, was down for about 12 hours, Tepco said.

Tepco said ALPS was down because of a system setting, not a malfunction.