Environment

Radiation Flooding Directly into Atmosphere

The tragedy escalates:

(Reuters) - Japan has told the U.N. nuclear watchdog radioactivity was being released "directly" into the atmosphere from the site of an earthquake-stricken reactor and that it had put out a fire at a spent fuel storage pond there.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), citing information it had received from Japanese authorities at 0350 GMT, said on Tuesday dose rates of up to 400 millisievert per hour have been reported at the Fukushima power plant site.

It did not give details or comparisons on the radiation level but exposure to over 100 millisieverts a year is a level which can lead to cancer, according to the World Nuclear Association.

The thing that keeps running through my head is the fact that Japan is a small island nation with a large population. How can they possibly cope with huge stretches of land totally polluted with radiation? The food supply alone is a ticking time bomb.

Now they're saying reactors five and six are becoming unstable.