Tokyo/Fukushima: Japan's nuclear crisis deepened further on Friday, with authorities saying that a reactor vessel at the crippled Fukushima atomic plant may have been damaged as some workers were exposed to radiation levels 10,000 times higher than normal, prompting Premier Naoto Kan to term the situation as "very grave".
The radiation leak detected on Thursday at the No.3 reactor indicated possible damage to the unit's vessel, pipes or valves, Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said, two weeks after the magnitude 9 quake and tsunami rocked the country's northeast leaving over 27,000 people dead or unaccounted for.
Three workers at the No.3 reactor's turbine building, who received burn injuries on Friday, were exposed to the water containing radioactive materials 10,000 times the normal level, Kyodo news agency reported, quoting authorities.
Following the incident, the nuclear agency ordered the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), the operator the nuclear plant, to improve radiation management at the crisis-hit facility. TEPCO has already begun removing the highly radioactive water from the site.
In a televised news conference, Premier Kan warned that the situation at the nuclear plant remained "very grave and serious" and still "unpredictable".
"We are not in a position where we can be optimistic. We must treat every development with the utmost care," he said, as he expressed his apology to farmers and businessmen around the plant for the damage suffered by them.
"We're working to stop the situation from worsening. We need to continue to be extremely vigilant," he said and asked residents in the tsunami-ravaged areas to "move with full courage towards reconstruction."
He also thanked technicians at the nuclear plant, firefighters and military personnel for "risking their lives" to stabilise the crippled atomic power station.
Hidehiko Nishiyama, Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency's spokesman, told a press conference that "there is a good chance that the reactor (No.3) has been damaged."
He, however, said later that there is no data, such as on the pressure level, to suggest a crack, Kyodo reported.
Nishiyama said that further verification is needed to find out how the radioactive water reached the underground site. Tonnes of water had been poured into the reactor and in its pool, which was substantially damaged by a hydrogen blast on March 14.
The government, which had earlier designated areas within a 20 km radius of the Fukushima plant as exclusion zone, encouraged residents within a 30 km radius of the nuclear power station to leave voluntarily, on Friday, as the release of radioactive materials is expected to continue for some time.
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