Plutonium found in soil around the crippled Fukushima nuclear complex added to mounting problems on Tuesday in Japans battle to contain the worlds worst atomic crisis since Chernobyl. Plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) said the radioactive material,which is used in nuclear bombs,was traced in soil at five locations at the plant,hit by an earthquake and tsunami on March 11. The company stressed the traces were not at dangerous levels. Plutonium found this time is at a similar level seen in soil in a regular environment and its not at the level thats harmful to human health, TEPCO vice-president Sakae Muto told reporters at a briefing. The plutonium discovery,from samples taken a week ago,was reported after TEPCO said on Monday highly radioactive water had been leaking from reactor No. 2. In a growing list of problems,the environmental group Greenpeace said it had detected high levels of radiation outside an exclusion zone. A partial meltdown of fuel rods inside No. 2 reactor vessel was responsible for the spiked radiation levels,although Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said the radiation had mainly been contained in the reactor building. TEPCO said radiation above 1,000 millisieverts per hour had been found in water in concrete tunnels that extend beyond the reactor.
