Abstract: Based on the comparison of AE inspection result and open tank inspection result in engineering practice, the reason of discontinuity leakage of the atmosphere storage tank was discussed in this paper. Meanwhile, the effective way using AE technology for leakage position identification was investigated .It was found that the leakage rate increased as the liquid level rising in the low level stage, however, in the high level stage, the leakage rate reduced as the gap between the tank bottom plate and the foundation became smaller, so the leakage was discontinuous. The leakage position could be accurately identified through comparison of AE inspection results at different liquid level with application-region location and time-difference location of clusters. The results proved that AE technology was an effective way for atmosphere storage tank bottom plate leakage inspection.