Leak from Japan reactor 100 times more than permitted

A water leak from Japan's tsunami-crippled nuclear power station earlier this month resulted in about 100 times the permitted level of radioactive material flowing into the sea, operator Tokyo Electric Power Co said on Saturday.

TEPCO said the leak discovered on May 11 at a storage pit outside the No.3 reactor of the Fukushima Daiichi had started in the early hours of the previous day and lasted for 41 hours, releasing 250 cubic metres of contaminated water into the sea. An estimated 20 terabecquerels of radioactive material escaped as a result, a company spokesman told a news conference.

Source: Reuters