Tokyo (AsiaNews / Agencies) - The pool of reactor number 3 of the Japanese nuclear power plant in Fukushima, which contains the fuel rods could be damaged, according to an official of the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO). In addition, the Japanese Agency for Nuclear Safety announces that the severity of the accident at a the power station could be raised from 5 to 6 out of a scale of 7. Meanwhile, the number of dead and missing in the earthquake and tsunami has exceeded 27 thousand.
In China, two Japanese were hospitalized on March 23 shortly after arriving from Tokyo, because of their "serious levels of radioactivity." Arriving at the airport of Wuxi (eastern part of Jiangsu province) on a commercial flight, after being inspected they were immediately quarantined. The two are now in a hospital in the city of Suzhou for treatment. Their luggage and clothes were destroyed.
It is still unclear how the two may have been contaminated, since they live about 240 km from the plant in Fukushima. Previously, cases of Japanese with abnormal levels of radiation were reported only in Taiwan, on March 17 last, shortly after the explosion at the first reactor.
The situation remains critical. The Japanese government is holding all hysteria in check, but at the same time it is calling on people living in a radius of 30 km from the plant to evacuate “voluntarily”. For the past two days residents in the capital Tokyo have been warned not to give tap water to children, because it contains a concentration of radioactive iodine, harmful to children.