The operator of the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant in Japan began on Saturday to build a steel wall and fence, in an attempt to prevent more contaminated water from flowing into the Pacific Ocean.

Tokyo Electric Power Co.(TEPCO) plans to plug a seawater intake connected to the No. 2 reactor of the complex with seven steel sheets and a 120-meter-wide curtain-like fence near the intake and two other locations nearby, according to Kyodo News.

In addition, TEPCO also discharged some 9,000 tons of water with relatively low-level radioactivity into the Pacific. The company said massive amount of such water in the plant hampered the work of getting the troubled plant under control.