Hardly had the operator of Japan's damaged nuclear plant announced that they have stopped a leak of highly radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean early Wednesday morning from reactor 2, they are now preparing to inject nitrogen to the containment vessel of reactor 1 to prevent a possible hyrdogen explosion.

Reactor 1 currently has the highest pressure and temperature among the six nuclear reactors damaged at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant when a 9.0 magnitude earthquake, followed by a massive tsunami, hit the eastern coast of Japan on March 11.

Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) officials fear that there will be an accumulation of hydrogen which will react violently with oxygen and will trigger an explosion. Nitrogen will displace oxygen.

The injection process will take several days, and may lead to the release of radioactive substances in the air.

TEPCO said they will do it later today.

The move does not mean that there is an "immediate danger" but aims to prevent "in advance".

Earlier, fuel rods operator of reactor 2 said it had injected 400 gallons of "liquid gas", or sodium silicate and a hardening agent near a cracked pit that leaked highly radioactive water directly into the ocean.

Meanwhile, engineers are still faced with the massive problem of how to store 60 million liters of contaminated seawater used to cool over-heated fuel rods.

Workers at the plant bring down temperatures to prevent a full meltdown of the fuel rods by pumping water into the reactors and allowing it to be pumped out. A meltdown would release even more radioactivity into the environment.

The Japanese government on Monday gave the go-signal to pump more than 3 million gallons of less-contaminated water into the sea.

Officials said this water would not pose a significant threat to human health. #30