A leak of radioactive water was detected yesterdayWednesday, at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plantin northeastern Japan, without, however, detecting any traces of contamination outside the premisesTepco plant management company announced to AFP today.

THE leakage of 5.5 cubic meters of water (approx. 5,500 liters) at the power stationwhich was badly damaged in 2011, was noted before it was treated by a system called ALPS, which rids the water reclaimed from the plant of most of its radioactive substances, a Tepco spokesman said.

Officials stopped the leak about twenty minutes after it was discovered yesterday morning by a worker cleaning exhaust pipes at the facility.

This water may contain radioactive isotopessuch as cesium 137 and strontium 90, according to the Tepco spokeswoman, who added that the company plans to remove soil contaminated by the spill.

“There was no noticeable change” in the radioactivity control data in the areas around the station, he assured.

The Fukushima nuclear power plant was destroyed by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in northeastern Japan.

The decontamination and decommissioning of the station is expected to take decadeswhile the most difficult part of them, the extraction of the molten fuel from the damaged reactors, has not yet begun.

After receiving the green light from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Japan began the very gradual dumping of more than 1.3 million cubic meters of water into the Pacific Ocean this summer of the station after processing them with the ALPS system.

Japan and the IAEA assert that this process, which is expected to last until the 2050sposes no risk to the marine environment and health.

China and Russia, however, expressed strong concerns and suspended all their imports of products from the Sea of ​​Japan.

An incident also occurred today at another nuclear power plant: smoke and sparks were seen in the exhaust pipe of a reactor being dismantled at the Tsuruga Power Station in Fukui Prefecture, central Japan.

“The situation was dealt with immediately, with no injuries or leakage of radioactive substances”a representative of the Tsuruga station management company told AFP Japan Atomic Power.