TEPCO ends 100-ton radioactive water leak incident probe without conclusion

Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) said Wednesday that it could not get enough evidence to explain why 100 tons highly radioactive water spilt from a storage tank on February, local media reported.

The company revealed on Feb. 19 that nearly 100 tons radioactive water overflowed from a storage tank at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, but the leak was not discovered for several hours.

According to it, the toxic water may have overflowed after a valve was left open by mistake, but after that the value was reset to normal position. So who operated the facility at that time became the focus of the investigation.

TEPCO interviewed 124 employees and contract workers between Feb. 21 and March 14. It also checked footage of surveillance cameras but was not able to get to the bottom of the incident, said the report.

The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, which was damaged by an earthquake and tsunami in 2011, has faced multiple problems including leaks and power cuts since the disaster.

The leak became the most serious incident since last August, when the plant leaked 300 tons of water, prompting Japan's nuclear agency to raise the incident's alert level.