Tokyo Electric Power Co. finally succeeded in stopping the main leak of highly radioactive water from the damaged Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant into the ocean Wednesday morning and workers were preparing to inject nitrogen into at least one reactor in a bid to prevent another hydrogen explosion.
Tepco said it confirmed at 5:38 a.m. that a crack in the No. 2 reactor storage pit had been plugged after workers injected 1,500 liters of sodium silicate and another agent to solidify a layer of small stones under a cable trench.
"I have been told that it is being thoroughly looked into whether the leak has completely stopped and whether there are other (cracks)," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said. "We have not stopped worrying just because the leak supposedly stopped."