Tokyo Electric Power Company confirmed on Tuesday that there had been meltdowns of fuel rods at three of the plant’s reactors early in the crisis.
The reconstruction of Japanese towns and cities devastated by a deadly earthquake and tsunami last month could take a decade, an advisory panel says.
Unpopular Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan faces fresh pressure to quit after his ruling party’s losses in local elections on Sunday.
Japan raised the severity of its nuclear crisis to the highest level on Tuesday, putting it on a par with the world’s worst nuclear disaster.
Engineers at the damaged Fukushima Daiichi plant north of Tokyo said on Sunday they were no closer to restoring the plant’s cooling system.
Japan will pump radioactive water into the sea from a crippled nuclear plant until Sunday, a day later than previously planned.
Workers were withdrawn from a building at Japan’s earthquake-wrecked nuclear plant on Sunday after potentially lethal levels of radiation were found.
Radiation levels have soared in seawater near Japan’s crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, officials said on Saturday.
Japanese engineers were frantically attempting on Saturday to pump out puddles of radioactive water at the Fukushima nuclear power plant.
Japan hoped power restored to its stricken nuclear plant may help solve the world’s worst atomic crisis in 25 years.