Sakuraa Nihongo Resource Centre

Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said it was looking into a report from the U.N. atomic agency about high levels of radiation in the village of Iitate, 40 kilometers from the plant in Fukushima prefecture.

The International Atomic Energy Agency said the level in one spot tested in Iitate was twice its suggested threshold for evacuation.

NISA spokesman Hidehiko Nishiyama said officials were checking radiation levels in the village, which lies outside even a voluntary evacuation area 30 kilometers from the plant. He said most residents have left, but about 100 have chosen to stay.

“We take it seriously,” he said Thursday. “We may consider asking these people to evacuate. But we need more time to study the situation.” People in a 20-kilometer radius around the plant have already been ordered to leave their homes.

Experts say the spike does not pose an immediate danger to human health, but evacuation recommendations tend to be conservative to prevent longterm exposure to any elevation in radiation levels.

Operations continued Thursday to cool down the dangerously overheated Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, which has leaked radiation after being damaged in the March 11 quake and tsunami.

The mission to stabilize the plant, 250 kilometers northeast of Tokyo, has become more complicated since the discovery a week ago that radioactive water is pooling inside, restricting the areas in which crews can work.

It also puts emergency crews in the uncomfortable position of having to pump in more water to continue cooling the reactor while simultaneously pumping out contaminated water.

French nuclear officials who are experts of the removal of such radiation have recently arrived to help out, and the IAEA is also sending experts. On Thursday, President Nicolas Sarkozy of France arrived in Tokyo on Thursday for talks with Prime Minister Naoto Kan.

Contamination from the plant has been seeping into the sea, posing no threat to human health because fishing and swimming aren’t allowed in the vicinity but sparking concern about the continued leaks, Nishiyama said.

However, radiation levels are rising. Seawater some 330 meters from the shore south of the plant measured 4,385 times the legal limit, up from 3,355 times the allowed amount the previous day, officials from plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co said.

Experts say the radioactive particles are unlikely to build up significantly in fish, but the seafood concerns in the country that gave the world sushi are yet another blemish for Brand Japan.

Radioactive iodine is short-lived, with a half-life of just eight days, and in any case was expected to dissipate quickly in the vast Pacific Ocean. It does not tend to accumulate in shellfish.

Other radioactive particles have been detected in the waters near the plant, and some have made their way into fish. Trace amounts of radioactive cesium-137 have been found in anchovies as far afield as Chiba, near Tokyo, but at less than 1% of acceptable levels.

“We have repeatedly told consumers that it is perfectly safe to eat fish,” said Shoichi Takayama, an official with Japan’s fishery agency.

Japan battled to contain a radiation leak at an earthquake-crippled nuclear plant on Sunday, but faced a fresh threat with the failure of the cooling system in a second reactor.

Operator TEPCO said it was preparing to release some steam to relieve pressure in the No.3 reactor at the plant 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo — which would release a small amount of radiation — following an explosion and leak on Saturday in the facility’s No. 1 reactor.

As strong aftershocks continued to shake Japan’s main island the desperate search for survivors from Friday massive earthquake and tsunami continued, and the death toll was expected to rise.

Thousands spent another freezing night huddled over heaters in emergency shelters along the northeastern coast, a scene of devastation after the 8.9 magnitude quake sent a 10-meter (33-foot) wave surging through towns and cities.

Kyodo news agency said the number of dead or unaccounted for as a result of the quake and tsunami was expected to exceed 1,800. It also reported there had been no contact with around 10,000 people in one small town, more than half its population.

The government insisted radiation levels were low following Saturday’s explosion, saying the blast had not affected the reactor core container, and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said it had been told by Japan that levels “have been observed to lessen in recent hours.”

But Japan’s nuclear safety agency said the number of people exposed to radiation from the Fukushima Daiichi plant could reach 160. Workers in protective clothing were scanning people arriving at evacuation centers for radioactive exposure.

Around 140,000 people had been evacuated from areas near the plant and another nuclear facility nearby, while authorities prepared to distribute iodine to people in the vicinity to protect them from radioactive exposure.

“There is radiation leaking out, and since the possibility (of being exposed) is high, it’s quite scary,” said Masanori Ono, 17, standing in line on Saturday to be scanned for radiation at an evacuation center in Fukushima prefecture.

Before news of the problem with reactor No. 3, the nuclear safety agency said the plant accident was less serious than both the Three Mile Island accident in 1979 and the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster.

An official at the agency said it has rated the incident a 4 according to the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale (INES). Three Mile Island was rated 5 while Chernobyl was rated 7 on the 1 to 7 scale, the official said.

DEVASTATED COASTLINE

Along the northeast coast, rescue workers searched through the rubble of destroyed buildings, cars and boats, looking for survivors in hardest-hit areas such as the city of Sendai, 300 km (180 miles) northeast of Tokyo.

Aerial footage showed buildings, trains and even light aircraft strewn like children’s toys after powerful walls of seawater swamped areas around Sendai.

More than 1,000 people were feared dead in the massive tsunami triggered by Japan’s most powerful earthquake which wrought devastation in northeast coastal Japan forcing the government to declare emergency at two nuclear plants after their cooling systems failed. Kyodo news agency reported that 217 bodied have been recovered while the toll could be over 1,000.

The cooling systems in two key nuclear power plants at Fukushima plant were disabled and Japan’s nuclear safety agency has said that the plant will release slightly radioactive vapour from the unit to lower the pressure in an effort to protect the reactor from a possible meltdown.

Prime Minister Naoto Kan ordered evacuation of over 45,000 residents living within 10-kilometres radius of the nuclear plants.

A strong 6.7-magnitude earthquake hit the country’s mountainous Niigata prefecture northwest of Tokyo early this morning, causing landslides and avalanches and destroying some wooden houses.

On Friday, the gushing waters following the 8.9-magnitude quake, the most powerful since the 1923 tremor in Great Kanto area in Tokyo and its vicinity which was 7.9 on Richter scale and had killed more than 140,000 people, swept houses, overturned ships, vehicles and set ablaze several buildings, including a petrochemical plant.

Most of the bodies were recovered from Sendai.

Japan’s military-mobilized thousands of troops, 300 planes and 40 ships have been set up for the relief effort, Kyodo reported.

At least 60 people were killed in Iwate prefecture and other places. A 67-year-old man was killed after being hit by a crumbling wall in Chiba prefecture, while a woman in her 50s died after a portion of a roof of a hall collapsed in Tokyo.

The National Police Agency said 531 people were reported missing and 627 others were injured in the quake and the 33-foot tidal waves in the country’s northeast coast.