RADIATION levels are continuing to rise in the ocean outside a leaking nuclear plant in Japan’s northeast as officials debated whether to broaden the evacuation zone around the tsunami-damaged facility.

New readings show radiation levels continue to rise in the ocean outside a leaking nuclear plant in Japan's north east, officials said today, as they debated whether to broaden the evacuation zone around the tsunami-damaged facility.

Setbacks mounted in Japan’s nuclear crisis today, with nearby seawater showing the highest radiation levels yet and the president of the wrecked plant being taken to hospital with stress.

Seawater outside the crippled nuclear power plant in north-eastern Japan was found to contain 3,335 times the usual amount of radioactive iodine – the highest rate yet and a sign that more contaminated water was making its way into the ocean, officials said today.

Highly radioactive iodine seeping from Japan’s damaged nuclear complex may be making its way into seawater further north of the plant than previously thought, officials said today, adding to radiation concerns as the crisis stretches into a third week.

Mounting problems, including incorrect radiation figures and a shortage of storage tanks, have stymied emergency workers as they tried to nudge Japan’s stricken nuclear complex back from the edge of disaster.

Radioactivity in contaminated water in one reactor unit at a damaged Japanese nuclear power plant tested 10 million times higher than normal, forcing the evacuation of workers and again delaying efforts to bring the complex under control, the plant’s operator said today.

Officials are racing to restore electricity to Japan’s leaking nuclear plant, but getting the power flowing will hardly be the end of their battle: with its mangled machinery and partly melted reactor cores, bringing the complex under control is a monstrous job.

Japan's nuclear experts admitted today that the Fukushima reactor disaster was worse than anything they ever imagined could have happened.

In the first sign that contamination from Japan’s stricken nuclear complex had seeped into the food chain, officials said today that radiation levels in spinach and milk from farms near the tsunami-crippled facility exceeded government safety limits.

EMERGENCY workers frantic to regain control of Japan’s dangerously overheated nuclear complex turned to increasingly elaborate methods yesterday to cool nuclear fuel rods at risk of spraying out more radiation.

A second hydrogen explosion in three days rocked a Japanese nuclear reactor today and fuel rods were left dangerously exposed at another unit as authorities worked to avert any catastrophic release of radiation in the tsunami zone.

Yaroslov Shtrombakh, a Russian nuclear expert, has said that a Chernobyl-style meltdown is "unlikely" at Japan's Fukushima nuclear power plant.

An explosion at a nuclear power station tore down the walls of one building today as smoke poured out and Japanese officials said they feared the reactor could melt down following the failure of its cooling system in a powerful earthquake and tsunami.

Japan’s nuclear watchdog has detected an additional radioactive leak from the atomic power plant damaged in this week’s earthquake, Kyodo News agency reported today.

Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe agreed with US President George Bush to take “decisive action” against North Korea at the UN Security Council over its nuclear weapons test.

THE operator of a Japanese nuclear plant admitted to lax safety inspections after a steel pipe which had not been properly inspected for 28 years exploded and killed four workers.

Smoke billowed from an experimental nuclear power plant in central Japan today, but there were no initial reports of radiation leaks or injuries.