Fukushima storage tank springs leak

A storage tank at Japan’s damaged Fukushima nuclear plant has sprung a leak, resulting in the loss of 80,000 gallons of highly radioactive water.

The leak is the worst yet from the hundreds of rubber-seamed steel storage tanks holding contaminated water collected in the aftermath of the March 2011 tsunami that crippled the plant, according to The New York Times.

Tokyo Electric Power Co.—or Tepco—said that the leaking water, which has a radiation level equal to the maximum cumulative exposure allowed for plant workers over five years’ time, poses no immediate threat to the ocean.

Others disagree.

“We are extremely concerned,” said Hideka Morimoto, a spokesman for Japanese nuclear-watchdog group the Nuclear Regulation Authority, adding that the leaking water could reach the sea via a drain gutter.