The operator of Japan's disaster-hit Fukushima nuclear plant detected radioactive iodine 1,150 times the legal limit in water 30 metres (100 feet) from reactors 5 and 6, the nuclear safety agency said Monday.

  

Two damaged reactors at the Fukushima No.1 power plant on March 16. (AFP/JIJI Press/File)

 

Those two reactors were under maintenance when a huge 9.0-magnitude earthquake hit, triggering a devastating 14-metre tsunami that tore into the northeast coast and crippled cooling functions at the Fukushima Daiichi plant.

 

Previously Tokyo Electric Power, the operator, said that reactor five's external, non-emergency power connection had been restored and cooling of its spent fuel pool had resumed.

 

At reactor six, the emergency power generator and cooling functions had been restored, TEPCO had said.

 

On Sunday, levels of radioactive iodine some 1,850 times the legal limit were reported a few hundred metres offshore, up from 1,250 times the limit on Saturday, but officials ruled out an immediate threat to marine life or to seafood safety.

 

AFP