14 water leaks found at Japan nuclear plant

Water leaks from 14 points at the stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant's facilities have been found, leading the operator to suspend the cooling of the spent fuel pool at its No. 4 reactor for two hours, Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) was quoted by local media as reporting on Monday.

The leakage is believed to have been caused by the freezing cold weather, and the leaked water included purified radioactively contaminated water, TEPCO said on Sunday, adding that the contamination level is low.

Water temperature in the pool remained almost stable at 21 degrees Celsius, it said.

TEPCO said around 40 liters of real water leaked from the pool- cooling system of the No. 4 reactor Sunday morning, while probably 600 liters of purified water were found to have leaked from another facility. But TEPCO said it is believed that the water did not flow into the ocean.

The temperature in Namie, Fukushima Prefecture where the nuclear power plant locates, fell to below minus 8 degrees Celsius recently.