Contaminated groundwater is leaking from Japan’s Fukushima power plant into the ocean, the plant operator acknowledged Monday in the first public admission of the leak.

The nuclear giant also acknowledged that the number of workers exposed to dangerous radiation is ten times greater than previously claimed.

“We would like to offer our deep apology for causing grave worries for many people, especially for people in Fukushima,” Masayuki Ono, Tokyo Electric Power Company’s general manager, told a news conference in comments broadcast on public NHK television, Reuters reports.

TEPCO had refused for two years to acknowledge the environmental damage wrought by the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl.

Unusual steam has been rising from the power plant for days, but TEPCO had vigorously denied that it was reflective of any serious problem.

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