About 1.8 tons of radioactive water has leaked out of three new breaches in the water retention barriers ringing the storage tanks at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, Tokyo Electric Power Co. said.
The announcement late Sunday followed a report Saturday that 1.6 tons of tainted water had leaked from other barriers set up around the clusters of tanks. The barriers are supposed to prevent any water seeping from the leaky tanks from spreading.
The leaks were confirmed at two tank clusters. Tepco said one of the barriers, holding 6 cm of water augmented by several days of rain, was leaking due to a gap between its wall and base.
The water isn't believed to have entered the sea because unlike previous cases, there is no drainage ditch nearby, the utility said.
At the second barrier, water was confirmed to have leaked both from the bottom and through a crack.