Radioactive water found outside nuclear plant in Japan

Radioactivity 100,000 times normalSTORY HIGHLIGHTS NEW: Japanese official says contaminated water overflow a threatPlutonium found in small quantities on plant groundsPower restored to No. 3 reactor Radioactive water, possible containment leak plague plant Tokyo (CNN) -- The Japanese company trying to contain the release of radiation from its Fukushima nuclear plant must pour enough water to cool its damaged reactors without creating an overflow of contaminated water from the plant, a government official said Tuesday.

Yukio Edano, Japan's chief Cabinet secretary and the government's point man for the nation's nuclear crisis, said the effort to prevent the reactors from overheating "must be given priority."

But Edano acknowledge the danger posed by continuing to pour water into them.

"If we need to increase water injection, this is what we need to do. If we stop water injection, fuel rod temperatures may increase and that may result in overheating," Edano said. "But fundamentally we need to drain the water as soon as possible."

Edano's remarks came a day after he told reporters that the containment structure surrounding one of the reactors at a quake-battered nuclear power plant is damaged and may be leaking radioactive material.

The plant's owner disclosed that small amounts of plutonium had been found among contaminants around the facility late Monday as Japanese authorities struggled to explain how radioactive water was leaking into maintenance tunnels and possibly, into the Pacific Ocean.

Edano told reporters Monday afternoon that "there may be a leak" from the containment vessel surrounding the No. 2 reactor. He said experts were still trying to determine the condition of the reactor's pressure vessel, which sits inside the containment vessel and immediately surrounds the radioactive fuel rods at the reactor's core.

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