The only reason that it's bigger than Cernobyl is that they allowed Greenpeace in, and they will scare more people to death than the actual effects of any residual radiation.

The current levels in the Fukushima province are about on a par with Denver Colorado, except for a corridor running NW from the plant for about 40km, which is slightly elevated.

When the media stated that the levels are 100 times normal, or 100 times background, that's pretty meaningless because natural background radiation varies considerably with time and geographical location.

Meantime, we're forgetting about a massive Tsunami that killed about 27,000 people and totally destroyed entire settlements.

There needs to be some perspective.

Japan set to extend nuclear evacuation zone

By Hayden Cooper and wires

Updated 4 hours 18 minutes ago

The Japanese government is considering extending the evacuation zone around the Fukushima nuclear plant because of high radiation levels.

A 20-kilometre exclusion zone has been in place around the plant since a 9.0-magnitude earthquake and tsunami hit Japan one month ago today.

But Japan's chief cabinet secretary, Yukio Edano, says changes are being considered.

"From the perspective of cumulative radiation, we need to take measures to secure people's safety," he said.

No decision has been announced, but local media reports say the zone could be extended to 30km and authorities will stop anyone trying to return to their homes.

Engineers at the damaged plant north of Tokyo said on Sunday they were no closer to restoring the plant's cooling system, which is critical if overheated fuel rods are to be cooled and the six reactors brought under control.

They are hoping to stop pumping radioactive water into the ocean today, days later than planned.

The government has so far refused to widen the evacuation zone despite being urged by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to do so.

Both Australia and the United States recommend citizens stay 80km away from the plant.

Fukushima governor Yuhei Sato criticised the evacuation policy, saying residents in a 20- to 30km radius were initially told to stay indoors and then advised to evacuate voluntarily.

"Residents in the 20- to 30km radius were really confused about what to do," he told NHK television yesterday.

The earthquake and tsunami is the worst crisis in Japan since World War II, leaving nearly 28,000 dead or missing and rocking the world's third-largest economy.

At precisely 2:46pm (local time) Japan fell silent to remember the dead and missing.

In ruined villages along the north-east coast, survivors put their hands together in prayer and bowed their heads as once again an emergency siren sounded.

Japan's prime minister used the occasion to thank the world for offering help during the past month.

- ABC/Reuters

TOKYO, April 12 (Reuters)

* Fire at Japan's crippled nuclear plant

* Major aftershock rocks Tokyo

* Crisis may be on par with Chernobyl

* High radiation forces extention of evacuations

Engineers were fighting a fire at Japan's crippled nuclear plant on Tuesday as another major aftershock rocked eastern Japan, swaying buildings in central Tokyo and closing Narita airport runways.

Japan is considering raising the severity level of its nuclear crisis to put it on a par with the Chernobyl accident 25 years ago, the worst atomic power disaster in history, Kyodo news agency reported on Tuesday.

Operator of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo, said on Tuesday that its workers were fighting a fire near damaged reactor No. 4.

It was unclear how serious the fire was.

"Flames and smoke are no longer visible but we are awaiting further details regarding whether the fire has been extinguished completely," said a spokesman for Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) .

News of the fire came only minutes after a 6.3 aftershock struck off the coast of Chiba, 77 km (48 miles) northwest of Tokyo. Kyodo said Japan's main international airport Narita closed runways for checks but later resumed flights.

An aftershock measuring 6.6 quake hit Fukushima prefecture on Monday evening temporarily cutting power and forcing workers to evacuate the nuclear plant.

Japan's Nuclear Industry and Safety Agency (NISA) said the Fukusihima aftershock, which killed one man and knocked out power to 220,000 households, did not damage the nuclear plant.

There have been hundreds of aftershocks since March 11 when a massive 9 magnitude earthquake and 15 metre tsunami hit northeast Japan, plunging the country into its worst crisis since World War Two.

Nearly 28,000 Japanese are dead or missing and the world's third-largest economy is reeling with power blackouts, factory c closures and cuts to supply lines.

The Kyodo reported on Tuesday that the high levels of radiation that have been released by the Fukushima Daiichi plant meant it could raise the severity level from 5 to the highest 7, the same as the 1986 Chernobyl accident. [ID:nL3E7FB35B]

Japan had previously assessed the accident at reactors operated by TEPCO at level 5, the same level as the Three Mile Island accident in the United States in 1979.

Kyodo said the government's Nuclear Safety Commission had estimated that at one stage the amount of radioactive material released from the reactors in northern Japan had reached 10,000 terabequerels per hour of radioactive iodine 131 for several hours, which would classify the incident as a major accident according to the INES scale.

The International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale (INES), published by the International Atomic Energy Agency, ranks nuclear incidents by severity from 1 to a maximum of 7.

Kyodo did not say when the big increase in radiation had happened but quoted the commission as saying the release had since fallen to under 1 terabecquerel per hour.

The commission also released a preliminary calculation for the cumulative amount of external exposure to radiation, saying it exceeded the yearly limit of 1 millisieverts in areas extending more than 60 kms (36 miles) to the northwest of the plant and about 40 km to the south-southwest.

"It has been obvious all along this was a 7. There are three reactors that are not being cooled (No. 1, 2 &3) and four fuel pools too (No. 1, 2, 3, and especially 4)," said Arnie Gundersen, a 29-year veteran of the nuclear industry who worked on reactors similar to those at Daiichi and who is now chief engineer at Fairewinds Associates Inc of Burlington, Vermont.

He said that means there were at least seven cores or pools that had been in difficulty. He noted that at Chernobyl it was only one reactor that created the problem.

A spokesman for the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, Japan's nuclear safety watchdog, said he was unaware of any move by the government to raise the level.

RADIOACTIVE WATER

The March 11 tsunami, the largest recorded in quake-prone Japan, crippling the reactors' cooling systems.

Engineers at the plant north of Tokyo said they were no closer to restoring the plant's cooling system, which is critical to bring down the temperature of overheated fuel rods and to bringing the six reactors under control.

TEPCO said on Monday it had stopped the discharge of low-level radioactive water into the sea that have drawn complaints from neighbouring China and South Korea.

It has already pumped 10,400 tonnes of low-level radioactive water into the ocean to free up storage capacity for highly contaminated water from the reactors.

In a desperate move to cool the highly radioactive fuel rods, TEPCO has pumped water onto reactors, some of which have experienced partial meltdown.

But the strategy has hindered moves to restore the plant's internal cooling system as engineers have had to focus on how to store 60,000 tonnes of contaminated water.

Engineers are also pumping nitrogen into reactors to counter a build-up of hydrogen and prevent another explosion sending more radiation into the air, but they say the risk of such a dramatic event has lowered significantly since March 11.

EVACUATION ZONE WIDENS

Because of accumulated radiation...

WRAPUP 4-Fire at Japan's crippled nuclear plant, more aftershocks

TOKYO, April 12 (Reuters) - Engineers were fighting a fire at Japan's crippled nuclear plant on Tuesday as another major aftershock rocked eastern Japan, swaying buildings in central Tokyo and closing Narita airport runways.

Japan is considering raising the severity level of its nuclear crisis to put it on a par with the Chernobyl accident 25 years ago, the worst atomic power disaster in history, Kyodo news agency reported on Tuesday.

Operator of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo, said on Tuesday that its workers were fighting a fire near damaged reactor No. 4.

It was unclear how serious the fire was.

An aftershock measuring 6.6 quake hit Fukushima prefecture on Monday evening temporarily cutting power and forcing workers to evacuate the nuclear plant.

Nearly 28,000 Japanese are dead or missing and the world's third-largest economy is reeling with power blackouts, factory c closures and cuts to supply lines.

The Kyodo reported on Tuesday that the high levels of radiation that have been released by the Fukushima Daiichi plant meant it could raise the severity level from 5 to the highest 7, the same as the 1986 Chernobyl accident.

"It has been obvious all along this was a 7. There are three reactors that are not being cooled (No. 1, 2 &3) and four fuel pools too (No. 1, 2, 3, and especially 4)," said Arnie Gundersen, a 29-year veteran of the nuclear industry who worked on reactors similar to those at Daiichi and who is now chief engineer at Fairewinds Associates Inc of Burlington, Vermont.

He said that means there were at least seven cores or pools that had been in difficulty. He noted that at Chernobyl it was only one reactor that created the problem.

A spokesman for the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, Japan's nuclear safety watchdog, said he was unaware of any move by the government to raise the level.

EVACUATION ZONE WIDENS
Because of accumulated radiation contamination, the government is encouraging people to leave certain areas beyond its 20 km (12 mile) exclusion zone around the plant. Thousands of people could be affected by the move.

Link -
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/12/japan-idUSL3E7FB2TZ20110412?pageNumber...
======================================
At this point, even iF the TEPCO or government spokesperson was named FRANK CARE, I would have great difficulty in believing that he would be FRANK & Honest, in passing on all of the corect information!