Atomic energy team visits Japan's Fukushima power plant

TOKYO, Oct. 14 (UPI) -- An International Atomic Energy Agency team began a week-long assistance mission Monday at Japan's crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, it said.

The 16-member group, headed by Juan Carlos Lentijo, IAEA director of nuclear fuel cycle and waste technology, will inspect decontamination sites and present proposals to the Japanese government on how to make further progress in decontamination work, the Japanese news agency Kyodo News reported.

The nuclear plant was crippled by a March 2011 earthquake and tsunami, and last week was the site of leaking contaminated water after workers detached a water pipe, the Japan Broadcasting Corp. said.

An IAEA team also visited the plant several months after the earthquake, Kyodo News said.