The Japan PM asks urges calm as raised nuclear level

Prime Minister urges public not to panic after the Government boosted the level of severity of the crisis in a nuclear power plant it in the damaged by the tsunami to the highest rating - on an equal footing with the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.

Prime Minister Naoto Kan urged people in a television address to focus on the recovery of the disaster of the country.

He said "Right now, the situation of the nuclear reactor at the Fukushima plant has been stabilizing step by step". "The amount of radiation leaks is declining." "But we are not at the stage but where we can let our guard."

Japanese regulators said that they raised the rating of five to seven after new leaks of radiation of the Fukushima Daiichi plant assessments.

Monitoring of nuclear power in the country, said that, while the stricken plant radiation emission rate is only about 10 percent of this output to Chernobyl, the crippled Japanese facility issued still an enormous amount of radioactive substances that pose a risk over a large area.

So far, the Chernobyl disaster, in Ukraine was the only event assessed at level 7. The crisis of Fukushima was evaluated previously at level 5, the same as the incident at Three Mile Island 1979 in Pennsylvania.

Although the upgrade was spectacular, two - Fukushima and Chernobyl - disasters are not that similar, experts say that.

Chernobyl, it was the heart of the reactor itself exploded, releasing an enormous amount of radioactive material in a very short time. Fukushima had a less critical hydrogen explosion. And the total amount of the radioactive particles released so far seems to be only a small fraction of that observed in Ukraine.

Japan nuclear agency official Hidehiko Nishiyama said 29 people had died of acute radiation at Chernobyl, but no there were no fatal to Fukushima radiation losses.

The upgrade has at least two new earthquakes with a magnitude of Japan hit Northeast 6.0 Monday evening and Tuesday morning. The region was rocked by numerous aftershocks since then. Up to what the subducting plate moved in position, all quake in the area of rupture-- in this case, 300 kilometres long by 150 kilometres wide on the coast of the Japan which is less force that the initial earthquake is regarded as a rebuttal.

Workers operate world mounted on a truck, a modified Putzmeister 70Z, most large concrete pump to pump water contaminated unit 4 of the nuclear power plant in Fukushima Daiichi Tuesday. (Tokyo Electric Power Co./Associated Press)

It is believed that the 9.0 magnitude 11 March earthquake and the tsunami, that it has generated have caused damage of $ 310 billion. Japanese officials have updated the balance sheet of the victims of the disaster of 13,219 people. More than 14,000 others are still missing and more than 145 000 people living in the centres of evacuation across the country.

Fukushima Daiichi plant was spewing radiation since disasters and even a month, officials say they don't know how long it will take to cool reactors there.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao expressed concern Tuesday radiation reaches the ocean. He told his Japanese counterpart that the country must seriously examine the effects on the marine environment and the neighbours of the Japan.

He also reminded Prime Minister the it must strictly respect international law and the question of full reports in China.

In a gesture without report with replicas of Monday, the Japanese Government is expanding the area to evacuate around the plant 30 kilometres from 20, citing the risks of the cumulative radiation exposure.

The most recent calculations of the Japan Nuclear Safety Commission found that a zone stretching 60 kilometres north of the nuclear power plant and 40 kilometres to the South were, in the month since the earthquake, have been exposed to radiation equivalent to the annual dose limit. In the old zone of 20 kilometres of evacuation, the radiation exposure has reached up to 100 times the annual limit.

The factory itself, the Tokyo Electric Power Co., known as TEPCO, has resumed efforts to contain the radioactive leak of the plant, after a delay of one day because of strong aftershocks.

TEPCO will begin pumping contaminated water from the reactor No. 2 of Tuesday and transfer to a condenser, after verification of the safety equipment.

The radioactive water was impeding the work to restore the functions of cooling in the damaged reactors. He also resumed by injection of nitrogen, in the containment of the reactor No.1 vase late in the night of Monday said TEPCO. Which aims to prevent other explosions of hydrogen.

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