New leak feared at stricken Japan plant

TOKYO - Radioactive water appears to be leaking from a waste disposal building at Japan's Fukushima nuclear complex, operator Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) said on Thursday, in a new setback to the battle to contain radiation from the crippled power plant.

The disclosure by TEPCO raises the stakes in a race to complete by next month a system to decontaminate a massive pool of radioactive water at the site that critics see as a growing risk to both the nearby Pacific and groundwater.

A 9.0-magnitude earthquake and the massive tsunami that followed killed about 24,000 people and knocked out the Fukushima plant on March 11, triggering the world's worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl.