More radiation released from Fukushima

March 14, 2011 (in Australia) JAPAN is battling a widening nuclear crisis, with presumed partial meltdowns at two crippled reactors and serious cooling problems at three more, while the death toll from Friday's massive earthquake and tsunami continued to soar.

With high pressure inside the reactors at Fukushima Daiichi hampering efforts to pump in cooling seawater - an extreme step, as it is likely to leave the plant permanently disabled - plant operators had to release radioactive vapour into the atmosphere. Radiation levels outside the plant, which had declined overnight, shot up to 1,204 microsieverts per hour, more than twice Japan's legal limit, Mr Edano said. Syndey Morning Herald