Nightly News   |  April 02, 2011

Radioactive water leaking into sea

A crack in a damaged reactor adds to Japan's problems, including the health of plant workers and where to put the country's 12,000 dead. NBC's Lee Cowan has the story.

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>>> another setback to report tonight in the effort to gain control of the fukushima nuclear power plant in japan . highly radioactive water continues to leak directly into the pacific ocean . officials now know where it's coming from. lee cowan is in tokyo tonight.

>> reporter: they are the latest images from the crippled power plant . steam and smoke can still be seen rising from reactor number four. but it is reactor number two that is the most immediate concern. japan 's nuclear regulator say highly radioactive water flooded that compartment and it was seeping out of a crack. engineers hope to seal the leak, but since there is so much water, so far, that hasn't worked. the radioactive iodine will disperse quickly once it hits the ocean. the real threat is to the workers on site who still have to battle to stop it. today japan 's prime minister arrived in the disaster zone. the first time he set foot in the devastated landscape since this tsunami roared ashore three weeks ago and the view is devastating. there are so many bodies being recovered, 12,000 at last count that identification is almost impossible. local crematoriums are either destroyed or overloaded. some bodies are being shipped to tokyo 's crematorium, where buddhist monks now gather to offer blessings for those they've never met.

>> we want to be with them, those who lost their loved ones.

>> reporter: more than 20 bodies a day have been coming here. outnumbered only by those who come to pay their respects. they arrive every few minutes, strangers bringing flowers and ernest offerings to 240those who have lost so much. their bodies, this woman lamented, are just so far from home . out of all that is lost, and there is plenty. dignity, it seems, still stood strong. lee cowan, nbc news, tokyo .