Tears ... boss Akio Komori breaks dow
NUCLEAR experts yesterday raised the risk from Japan's crippled Fukushima power plant to a deadly Level Five.
It confirms there is a high probability the public will be exposed to radiation - and in amounts that could be fatal.It also turned the disaster from being a local problem to one "with wider consequences" and confirmed there has been significant damage to the reactor cores and the release of large amounts of radiation.
The nuclear emergency at Three Mile Island power station in the US in 1979 - when melting fuel rods threatened to kill thousands across Pennsylvania - was also Level Five.
The Chernobyl disaster in the Ukraine in 1986, which is estimated to have led to the deaths of thousands, was just two notches up the scale at Level Seven.
Until yesterday the threat level at Fukushima had been at Level Four.
Japan's nuke experts made a reassessment after international criticism they were underplaying the incident. France had already called for the incident to be Level Six.
Shortly after the new danger level was announced Akio Komori, boss of the Tokyo Electric Power Company which runs the plant, was pictured breaking down in tears.
He had just watched Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan go on TV and admit to the nation the situation was "serious". International Atomic Energy Agency chief Yukiya Amano, himself Japanese, described it as "very grave" - and insisted the country must reach out for all the international help it can get.
Tragic ... victims' coffins lined up in Miyagi
In Tokyo, 160 miles to the south of Fukushima, tests showed "slightly elevated" radiation levels - with the capital's 12 million habitants glued to weather forecasts to see if the wind direction is about to change.
But a town halfway between Tokyo and Fukushima, Maebashi, has already seen radiation levels rise to TEN times higher than normal.
A lightly-contaminated cloud of radiation even reached California - hours after President Barack Obama reassured citizens he did not expect harmful particles to drift across the Pacific.
Nuclear experts in Japan yesterday admitted they are now considering encasing the reactors at Fukushima in concrete, the method used to seal the radiation leak at Chernobyl. A spokesman for Tokyo Electric Power conceded: "It is not impossible to encase the reactors - but our priority is to cool them down first."
National nuclear energy spokesman Hidehiko Nishiyama said: "That solution is in the back of our minds." The Japanese government yesterday admitted it had been overwhelmed by the quake and tsunami - and failed to react quickly enough to the nuclear emergency.
Nuke scale ... the seven levels
But there are signs of hope. There were reports that the contamination at Fukushima may have fallen slightly in the past 24 hours. And power to the plant was restored last night. Heroic disaster workers, who have vowed death before failure, now believe they will be able to get water pump coolers working.
They hope it will bring down the heat in reactors one and two today. And tomorrow they will attempt to do the same on reactor three. It has been giving most concern with coolant bubbling into steam and now at danger levels.But Professor John Price, a former British nuclear safety adviser, believes the pumps could have already been damaged beyond hope by the quake, the tsunami or the explosion that rocked the plant.
He said: "The problem is we don't know whether connecting up those wires is actually going to make a difference." But while the battle to stop nuclear disaster continued, the aftermath of the quake and tsunami are still a major concern.
Latest estimates suggest more than 452,000 people are homeless, 343,000 households still have no electricity and a million homes have no water.
Steve McDonald of Save the Children said 100,000 homeless youngsters are in danger from chest infections and flu. There are already 17,227 feared dead.
The country came to a halt for a minute's silence at 2.46pm yesterday - the exact moment the undersea quake struck a week ago.
The cost to Japan's economy was yesterday put at between £80billion and £140billion. But countries around the world are doing their best to help, with the Bank of England yesterday selling £150million-worth of Japanese Yen to reduce its value and make it easier for Japanese firms to export.
Incredibly, the quake was felt more than 6,000 miles away, picked up on equipment used by experts on the Isle of Wight.
Britain will also feel the economic consequences - with estimates the cost of natural gas will rise by 15 per cent as countries turn away from nuclear energy.
It was also announced yesterday that The Queen is to make a personal donation to help Japan and New Zealand, also hit by a quake.The amount was not disclosed.
And Formula One star Jenson Button yesterday offered his condolences to Japan, home of model girlfriend Jessica Michibata, 26. Button, 31, said: "My heart is with the people."
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