TEL AVIV (MarketWatch) – The operator of the damaged Japanese nuclear power plant said over the weekend that it identified a source of a leak of radioactive water into the ocean and that the bodies of two nuclear-plant workers who had been missing since the disaster had been found.
Tokyo Electric Power Co. has been set back a number of times in its efforts to repair the damage to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear facility, which was hit hard by the March 11 magnitude-9 earthquake and subsequent tsunami. More than 28,000 people are dead or missing after the disaster, and tens of thousands are homeless in evacuation centers.
Japan Prime Minister
Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan (third from right) on April 2, 2011, observes a minute of silence as he inspects the damage from the March 11 earthquake and tsunami devastated city of Rikuzentakata, Iwate Prefecture.
Japanese nuclear-safety officials said they found, at reactor No. 2 of the six at the plant, what media reports described as a crack in a maintenance pit, from which highly radioactive water was leaking directly into the ocean.
The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said that workers poured concrete to try to seal the crack, but media reports say that that effort failed and Tepco /quotes/comstock/64e!9501 (JP:9501 449.00, -17.00, -3.65%) would try to apply water-absorbent polymers topped with more concrete to prevent further leakage of contaminated water.
Plant officials still have not regained control of the reactors; media reports say that nuclear-fuel rods remain overheated and radiation emissions continue.
On Saturday, Japan Prime Minister Naoto Kan visited the region for the first time since the disaster. Media reports say that residents of the area were angry that the premier took so long to visit them. Kan told a survivor at an evacuation center that the government would be "working together with you until the end," media reports say.
In addition, the bodies of two workers, men ages 21 and 24, were found March 31 in the basement of a building in reactor No. 4, Tepco officials said. The bodies were decontaminated, and the announcement was delayed out of respect for the families, a spokesman for the Japanese power provider said, according to reports.
The workers were injured severely and died March 11 while they were trying to protect the plant during the earthquake, media reports say.
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