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August 8th, 2013 
Peter Nolan
“We think that the volume of water (leaking into the Pacific) is about
300 tons a day,” said Yushi Yoneyama, an official with the Minister of
Economy, Trade and Industry.
Tatsuya Shinkawa, a director in METI’s Nuclear Accident Response Office, told
reporters the government believes water has been leaking for two years, or
essentially throughout the nuclear crisis, but Yoneyama told Reuters it was
unclear how long the water had been leaking at the current rate.
“We don’t know if all of that water is contaminated or not, but it’s
possible,” he said.
The Japanese leader stopped short of pledging funds to deal with the issue,
but the ministry has requested a budget allocation to help address the water
problem, an official told Reuters.
The Nikkei newspaper said the funds would be used to freeze the soil to
prevent groundwater from leaking into the reactor buildings – a project with
an estimated cost of up to 40 billion yen (£270m).
Tepco’s handling of the clean-up has complicated Japan’s efforts to restart
its 50 nuclear power plants, almost all of which have been shut since the
disaster because of safety concerns.
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