TEPCO reports small leak at Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan

Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), the operator of Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan, has reported that a small amount of toxic water has leaked from an underground storage pool at the nuclear plant.

TEPCO two days earlier had reported of a much larger leak from a similar storage pool.

The company said that about three liters, or just over three quarts, of water could have leaked from the No. 3 pool.

The pool is used to store highly contaminated water after being used to cool the damaged reactors and spent fuel of the Fukushima Daiichi plant.

On 5 April, TEPCO said that about 32,000 gallons of radioactive water had leaked from the adjacent No. 2 pool.

In March, the company stopped some of the makeshift cooling systems built after the accident for days after a partial blackout, which was later blamed on a short circuit caused by a rat.

Experts have said that the plant will remain weak for years, while the work to dismantle and clean up the damaged reactors may take decades to complete.