Decades of contamination ?
Japan races to contain radioactive water spread
Plutonium found next to nuclear plant 'no threat to public health'
New pools of radioactive water have been detected around Japan's earthquake-damaged Fukushima nuclear complex, officials said Monday, as workers continued racing to contain leaks from the facility.
Scientists are still trying to devise a plan to safely store the radioactive water seeping from the coastal Fukushima Daiichi power plant, 220 kilometres northeast of Tokyo. On Monday, officials said soil samples and seawater taken from around the station showed traces of plutonium — a key ingredient in nuclear weapons.
Although operators insisted the presence of plutonium posed no threat to public health, they believe the contaminated water has sent radiation levels in the area soaring. They added that only some of the plutonium samples were from the leaking reactors, while the rest came from earlier nuclear tests. Years of weapons testing in the atmosphere left trace amounts of plutonium in many places around the world.
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