Radiation risk at Fukushima plant escalates
RADIATION levels spiked at deadly levels at the Fukushima plant yesterday, as increasingly desperate efforts to cool the reactors continued.
Officials measured radiation at almost 4,000 millisivert (mSv) per hour yesterday morning, plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) told a press conference, and levels hit 170mSv per hour at the north west end of the 30km exclusion zone around Fukushima Daiichi.
The UK foreign office has advised Britons to stay at least 80km (30 miles) away from Fukushima Daiichi as a precaution, in line with US advice. Military helicopters dumped water over the reactor 3 building yesterday morning and electricity is due to be restored to the site after engineers linked up cables to the power grid. Seawater is being pumped into the four unstable reactors by the 180 workers who have remained onsite.