Plutonium has been found in soil at various points in and around Japan's stricken Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear complex, officials of the Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) admitted March 28. TEPCO vice president Sakae Muto told journalists at the company's latest briefing that test results showing the plutonium came from samples taken last week—while of course insisting that the contamination poses no threat to the public. The plutonium presumably comes from partially-melted MOX fuel from reactor Number 3. (Reuters, DC Bureau, March 28)

Sharply elevated radiation at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear complex on March 27 forced an emergency evacuation of of the Number 2 unit. The concerns began when a worker attempting to measure radiation levels of water puddles there saw the reading on his dosimeter jump beyond 1 sievert per hour, the highest reading. Michiaki Furukawa, a nuclear chemist and board member of the Citizens’ Nuclear Information Center, a Tokyo watchdog group, said exposure to 1 sievert of radiation would induce nausea and vomiting, while levels between 3 to 5 sieverts an hour could be lethal. Yukio Edano, the Japanese government’s top spokesman, told a press briefing that it appeared the radioactive puddles had developed when the No. 2 unit’s fuel rods were exposed to air but that "we don’t at this time believe they are melting. We’re confident that we are able to keep them cool." (NYT, March 28)

Three workers received burn lesions on their legs when they were exposed to highly radioactive water in the basement of the turbine building at reactor Number 3 at Japan's stricken Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant March 26, but news accounts were typically confused. Various sources put the radiation level the three had been exposed to at anywhere between 170 and 6.000 millisieverts (per hour, presumably), with 250 being the permissible level for workers. Some sources also said the workers likely suffered "beta ray burns." Two of the workers have apparently been hospitalized after the three underwent examination at the National Institute of Radiological Sciences in Chiba Prefecture. White smoke was again seen over the plant that morning. Officials said new readings showed Tokyo’s tap water was back to radiaiton levels acceptable for infants, but elevated levels were now detected in the neighboring prefectures of Chiba and Saitama. (NHK World, NHK World, March 26; AP, WSJ, March 25; AP, March 24)

Despite a temporary construction moratorium in the wake of the Fukushima disaster, China is still planning to move ahead with an ambitious thrust of nuclear development—with a new generation of supposedly meltdown-proof reactors. The technology in the works will be the "world’s first high-temperature, gas-cooled reactor," an official of the Huaneng Nuclear Power Development Co. told Bloomberg. The new Chinese reactor will not depend on external sources for cooling, but will instead use helium, an inert gas, in its cooling system, officials say. The reactor will be built to "withstand temperatures exceeding 1,600 degrees Celsius (2,912 degrees Fahrenheit) for several hundred hours without melting down," according to the China Business News.

Power was restored to the control room of the No. 3 reactor at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant late March 22, and the Tokyo Electric Power Co. plans to try to restart the cooling pumps. Engineers are now trying to reactivate monitoring systems, such as those measuring temperatures of the spent fuel rods. At unit No. 4, a construction vehicle designed to pour concrete for high rises is being used to pump water into the reactor building. International Atomic Energy Agency director general, Yukiya Amano, speaking from Vienna, noted "positive developments," while warning: "The crisis has still not been resolved and the situation at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant remains very serious," with "high levels" of radiation measured around the plant. (USA Today, NHK World, NYT, March 22) Hours after the announcement that power had been restored, TEPCO, said black smoke was rising from the No. 3 reactor building. The smoke gradually cleared after about an house, and TEPCO said that the radiation level at plant gate, one kilometer west of the No. 3 reactor, was unchanged at 265.1 micro-sieverts per hour. Gray smoke was seen rising from the same reactor building the previous day. (NHK World, March 23)

Japan has raised the alert level at the stricken Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant from four to five on the seven-point international scale of atomic incidents March 18. The crisis, previously rated as a local problem, is now regarded as having "wider consequences." Officials said damage to the containment cores at reactors 2 and 3 prompted the raising of the severity grade. The level five rating does not yet apply to the cooling ponds that have lost water, despite the dangerous heating of the spent fuel stored there. Elevated radiation levels have been detected up to 30 kilometers away from Fukushima.

NucNet, "The Nuclear Communications Network," citing the Japan Atomic Industrial Forum (JAIF), reports March 15 that following the explosions at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant, "damage is suspected to unit 2's inner or primary containment vessel (PCV)." Additionally, "spent fuel storage pool at unit 4 has been on fire with radioactivity being released directly into the atmosphere." TEPCO apparently told JAIF that the fuel pond fire has now been extinguished. But wire reports indicate that the fire in reactor Number 4 is getting worse.

Two more reactors at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in Japan are reported to have lost cooling functions March 15, as technicians continue their struggle to contain what threatens to become a meltdown. Reactors Number 5 and Number 6 now appear to going out of control, with rises in temperature recorded. This follows explosions at reactors 1, 3, and 2 since March 12, as well as a fire now reported at reactor Number 4. Technicians have now lost control of all six reactors at the plant. Additionally, the water in the plant's waste fuel storage pool may be boiling due to loss of coolant, officials said.