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TOKYO – The programme that runs a tsunami-crippled Asian thermonuclear noesis being says two workers were killed when the gesture swept ashore more than three weeks ago.

Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s declaration Sun is the prototypal commendation of deaths at the plant. The workers had been absent since the March 11 seism and tsunami.

Spokesman Naoki Tsunoda said the bodies were institute weekday and had to be decontaminated. The declaration was suspended out of consideration for the families.

Radiation has been spewing from the being since the wave knocked out cooling systems there, feat the reactors to dangerously overheat.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check backwards soon for further information. AP's earlier news is below.

TOKYO (AP) — Engineers unsuccessful to accolade a fissure where highly hot liquid was spilling into the Pacific from a Asian thermonuclear being incapacitated by terminal month's tsunami, but said a see of the place institute no another leaks Sunday.

A picture released by the plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co., shows liquid actuation some indifference away from a surround and wetting into the sea, though the turn of liquid was not clear. The septic liquid will apace dissipate in the ocean but could bear a danger to workers at the plant.

Pooling liquid at the Fukushima Dai-ichi thermonuclear complex — which is believed to ultimately come from the setup cores — has repeatedly unnatural technicians to vantage backwards and alter their work.

After a large wave knocked out noesis to the being on March 11, cooling systems unsuccessful and the reactors hit been dangerously overheating since. A program of nearly regular problems has led to substantial amounts of irradiation unseaworthy into the atmosphere, connector and seafaring in the world's worst thermonuclear crisis since the 1986 overheating at metropolis in the former Soviet Union.

The hardship engraved a line of conclusion up and downbound the north shore and is believed to hit mitt most 25,000 dead. Sun marks the terminal period of an all-out joint see by the U.S. and Asian militaries for bodies in inshore waters. The try is belike the final wish for retrieving the dead.

So far, 12,000 deaths hit been confirmed, and added 15,400 grouping are missing.

On Saturday, workers unconcealed an 8-inch- (20-centimeter-) long fissure in a fix incurvature at the Fukushima being that they said was believed to hit been caused by the 9.0-magnitude seism that generated the wave. Water containing levels of hot iodine far above the jural limit spilled from it into the Pacific, said Hidehiko Nishiyama of Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency.

Workers flooded the incurvature with concrete in an try to accolade the fissure but couldn't intend it to dry. They plan to try polymer on Sunday, mayhap creating a accolade far up in the system.

Over the instance 10 days, pools of septic liquid hit been institute throughout the being and high levels of radioactivity hit been rhythmic in the ocean, but this marks the prototypal instance authorities said they had institute a spot where the liquid was directly incoming the sea.

A see of the being institute no another kindred leaks directive directly to the ocean. "We believe that's the only crack," said Naoki Tsunoda, a TEPCO spokesman.

People living within 12 miles (20 kilometers) of the being hit been evacuated, but, as with previous leaks, it could bear a danger to workers.

A thermonuclear being miss who lapse into the ocean Friday patch disagreeable to board a barge carrying liquid to help cool the being did not show some unmediated signs of being unclothed to unsafe levels of radiation, thermonuclear safety officials said Saturday, but they were waiting for effort results to be sure.

Workers hit been reluctant to speech to the media most what they are experiencing, but digit who spent individual life at the being described arduous conditions in an anonymous interview published Sat in the domestic Mainichi newspaper.

When he was called in mid-March to help restore noesis at the plant, he said he did not tell his family because he did not poverty them to worry. But he did tell a friend to inform his parents if he did not convey in two weeks.

"I see rattling strongly that there is nobody but us to do this job, and we cannot go bag until we closing the work," he said.

Early on, the company ran out of full irradiation suits, forcing workers to create temporary versions of items much as nylon booties they were supposed to vantage over their shoes.

Radiation worries hit compounded the misery for grouping disagreeable to recover from the tsunami. Prime Minister Naoto Kan prefabricated his prototypal meet to the pulverized shore on Sat and pledged to stand by those struggling to build their lives.

"The polity full supports you until the end," Kan told 250 grouping at an easy edifice in Rikuzentakata bringing as a shelter.

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Associated Press writers metropolis Hoshiko in Rikuzentakata and Mayumi Saito and Shino Yuasa in Tokyo contributed to this report.

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