Japan stops radioactive water leak

Workers stopped a highly radioactive leak into the Pacific off Japan's flooded nuclear complex yesterday, but with the plant far from stabilised, engineers prepared an injection of nitrogen to deter any new hydrogen explosions.

Nitrogen can prevent highly combustible hydrogen from exploding. There have already been three explosions at the compound in the early days of the crisis that was set in motion on 11 March when the reactors' cooling systems were crippled by Japan's 9.0-magnitude earthquake and tsunami.