Engineers have stopped highly radioactive water leaking into the sea from a crippled Japanese nuclear power plant, the facility's operator said.
The development at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, announced on Wednesday, is a breakthrough in the battle to contain the nuclear crisis caused by last month's earthquake and tsunami.
However, the company operating the plant, Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO), still needs to pump low-level contaminated water into the sea because of a lack of storage space at the facility.
"The leaks were slowed yesterday after we injected a mixture of liquid glass and a hardening agent and it has now stopped," a TEPCO spokesman told the Reuters news agency.
Engineers had been desperately struggling to stop the leaks and had used sawdust, newspapers and concrete as well as liquid glass to try to stem the flow of highly-contaminated water.
The liquid glass was injected into the ground beneath the leaking storage pit on Tuesday and stopped the leak after solidifying the earth.
