Leak found in Japan reactor pit

TOKYO: Japanese Prime Minister made his first visit to tsunami-devastated region of the country Saturday that the operator of the nuclear complex hit Fukushima said he had found radioactive water leaks into the sea from a cracked concrete pit.

Regulators said in a discovery could explain the radioactive water that has hindered efforts to ease the nuclear crisis in Japan, Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) said that the radiation in the pit of its reactor at Fukushima No. 2 measured 1000 mSv per hour.

"With increasing radiation levels in the seawater near the plant, we tried to confirm the reason, and in this context, it could be a source," said Hidehiko Nishiyama, Deputy Chief the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency.

However, he warned: "We can not really say for sure until we have studied the results."

TEPCO is preparing to pour concrete into the well to stop the leak, added Nishiyama.

Prime Minister Naoto Kan spoke with refugees living in a makeshift camp in the fishing village of Rikuzentakata carried by the tsunami that struck on March 11, when Japan was shaken by a violent earthquake, leaving 28 000 dead or missing.

"It will be a kind of protracted battle, but the government will work hard with you until the end. I want everyone to do their best, too," Kan told a survivor in a school that had become a center of evacuation.

Despite its dikes tsunami Rikuzentaka was flattened into a wasteland of mud and debris and most of its 23,000 inhabitants killed or injured, many swept away by waves.