An estimated 330 tons of radiation-contaminated water was leaking into the Pacific Ocean every day from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, which was devastated by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami, a government official told reporters Wednesday, Reuters reported. The official added that government believed the leaks had been happening for two years. On Wednesday Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe ordered increased efforts to stop the leak. The plant’s operators Tokyo Electric Power Company insisted that so far the level of contamination in the ocean does not pose a risk to health. The company has been building an underground wall by injecting “liquid glass” into the ground in an effort to contain the contaminated water but some of it started to rise above ground. TEPCO said it will begin pumping out the contaminated underground water this week.
