TEPCO trying to plug nuclear plant leak

TOKYO, April 2 (UPI) -- The owner of the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan said Saturday it was using concrete to plug a leak that may be responsible for radioactive seawater.

Tokyo Electric Power Co. said the problem appeared to be caused by a foot-wide crack in a storage pit near reactor No. 2, The Japan Times reported. The pit, now full of highly radioactive water, is used for cables and is connected to the reactor, which may be the ultimate source of the leak.

Hidehiko Nishiyama, a spokesman for the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, told a news conference in Tokyo radioactive material in the ocean has been diluted and appears to pose no major threat.

A 9-magnitude earthquake and tsunami devastated the island nation March 11 and badly damaged four of Fukushima's six nuclear reactors.

High levels of radiation have been found in seawater near the plant and winds have carried low-level radioactivity to the western shores of the United States and Canada. Nishiyama said measurements show declining radiation levels in Tokyo.

Meanwhile, crews were working at maintaining cooling water flow into the reactors' cores to prevent a meltdown, Kyodo News reported. At the same time, officials were trying to determine how best to safely remove radioactive water pooling around the reactor structures.

TEPCO announced one of its plans was to inject nitrogen into the damaged areas to prevent the risk of further hydrogen explosions, Kyodo said.