A small amount of toxic water leaked from an underground storage pool at the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant on Sunday, barely two days after much larger leak from a similar storage pool was reported.
According to operator Tokyo Electric Power Company, the recent leakage was just over three liters. Public concerns about the firm’s ability to safely manage the plant, however, continue to mount.
In March a power failure forced the plant to shut down critical cooling systems for more than a day. It was the most serious systems failure since the plant was restored to a state of relatively safe “cold shutdown” several months after the April 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
Experts warn the plant will stay susceptible to failures for years, while the work of dismantling and cleaning up the damaged reactors is expected to take decades.
