The operator of Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear plant has admitted for the first time that radioactive groundwater has leaked out into the Pacific Ocean.
The Tokyo Electric Power Company has been battling for months to stop groundwater seeping into the complex and becoming contaminated.
The company has now admitted that radioactive water from the site has found its way into the sea.
The admission came the day after Japanese voters went to the polls in an election for the upper house, handing the largely pro-nuclear party of prime minister Shinzo Abe a large majority, the ABC reports.
Earlier in July, the company revealed groundwater samples taken at the Fukushima plant showed that levels of radioactive caesium had increased by more than 100 times in just a few days.
TEPCO also revealed a few weeks ago that a rat had caused a battery charger to break down in an emergency gas turbine generator vehicle.
Meanwhile, workers at the plant have reported steam inside a battered reactor building for the second time in less than a week, AFP reports.
TEPCO says workers are continuing with an operation to inject cooling water into the reactor and a pool storing nuclear fuel.
The company says monitoring equipment shows no significant changes, including in the levels of toxic substances the broken reactor is releasing.
It says the reactor, devastated by a massive tsunami in March 2011, is too dangerous to approach and workers had seen the steam on a camera feed.
