A water decontaminating system at the damaged Fukushima nuclear plant has been shut down after an acid leak.
Hydrochloric acid, used to neutralise radioactive water which is then being reused to cool the reactors, was spotted seeping from a pipe joint on Sunday.
Tokyo Electric Power, the plant’s operators, said one litre of acid had leaked, though it remains unclear how much more had leaked before the problem was noted.
The troubled system has had to be shut down twice in recent times – due to a clogged drain in September and a programming mistake a month later.
This latest leak comes after a huge toxic water spill from the plant into the sea in early October.
The Fukushima plant was badly damaged in an earthquake and tsunami in March 2011 which sent its reactors into meltdown.
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