The staff of Japan’s troubled Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant will be evacuated, the plant’s operator – Tokyo Electric Power – said on Tuesday.
Earlier, the country’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano reported a significant decrease in radiation levels near the plant but said that the coolant water inside the waste fuel pool of the Fukushima plant’s fourth reactor had reached boiling temperature, which is fraught with the meltdown of the fuel rods.
The devastating 8.9-magnitude earthquake that hit Japan last Friday disrupted the plant’s cooling system and caused explosions at the first and second reactors and a fire in the fourth unit.
The French ASN nuclear safety authority rated the Fukushima nuclear accident at level 6 on the seven-point international scale.