After notching a rare victory by stopping highly radioactive water from flowing into the Pacific, workers at Japan’s flooded nuclear power complex turned to their next task: injecting nitrogen to prevent more hydrogen explosions.

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.

JAPAN’S government vowed to overhaul nuclear safety standards once its radiation-leaking reactor complex is under control, admitting that its safeguards were insufficient to protect the plant against the March 11 tsunami.

Japan has promised to overhaul nuclear safety standards once it regains control of the wrecked Fukushima complex, admitting its current safeguards were not enough.

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.

Emergency workers struggling to pump contaminated water from Japan’s stricken nuclear complex fled from one of the troubled reactors today after reporting a huge increase in radioactivity – a spike that officials later said was inaccurate.

Emergency workers struggling to pump contaminated water from Japan’s stricken nuclear complex fled one of the troubled reactors today after reporting a huge spike in radioactivity, with levels 10 million times higher than normal in the reactor’s cooling system.

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.

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.

Radiation levels in spinach and milk exceed safety limits following nuclear accidents at a tsunami-stricken nuclear plant, Japan’s top government spokesman said today.

SIRENS wailed along a devastated coastline to mark exactly one week since an earthquake and tsunami triggered a nuclear emergency, and the government acknowledged it was slow to respond to the disasters that the prime minister called a “great test for the Japanese people.”

Emergency crews are still battling to cool overheated nuclear fuel at a stricken nuclear plant a week after the devastating earthquake and tsunami struck Japan.

The Japanese government says it was overwhelmed by the scale of to the huge earthquake and tsunami, slowing the response to the nuclear crisis.

Japan reached out today to the US for help in reining in the crisis at its dangerously overheated nuclear complex, while the UN atomic energy chief called the disaster a race against the clock that demands global cooperation.

THEY are known as the Fukushima 50, the workers who stayed behind at the crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant in order to prevent a meltdown in Japan.

Japan ordered emergency workers to withdraw from its stricken nuclear plant today amid a surge in radiation, temporarily suspending efforts to cool the overheating reactors.

Dangerous levels of radiation leaking from a crippled nuclear plant forced Japan to order 140,000 people to seal themselves indoors today after an explosion and fire dramatically escalated the crisis spawned by the earthquake and tsunami four days ago.

The fuel rods in one of Japan’s damaged nuclear reactors have been temporarily fully exposed from their coolant, raising the risk of overheating and a meltdown.

The second hydrogen blast in three days rocked Japan’s earthquake-stricken Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant today, sending a massive column of smoke into the air and injuring 11 people.

The second hydrogen explosion in three days rocked Japan’s stricken Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant today, sending a massive column of smoke into the air and wounding six workers.

JAPAN’S nuclear crisis has intensified as authorities raced to combat the threat of multiple reactor meltdowns and evacuated more than 170,000 people after the devastating earthquake and tsunami.

JAPAN battled a feared meltdown of two reactors at a quake-hit nuclear plant yesterday, as the full horror of the disaster emerged on the ravaged northeast coast where more than 10,000 were feared dead.

A state of emergency has been declared at a second Japanese nuclear power plant.

Japan’s nuclear crisis has intensified as authorities raced to combat the threat of multiple reactor meltdowns and evacuated more than 170,000 people after the devastating earthquake and tsunami.

Japanese officials are struggling with a growing nuclear crisis and the threat of multiple meltdowns, two days after the country’s north-eastern coast was savaged by a catastrophic earthquake and tsunami.

An explosion at a nuclear power plant on Japan's devastated coast destroyed a building today and made leaking radiation the central threat menacing a nation just beginning to grasp the scale of a catastrophic earthquake and tsunami.

An explosion shattered a building housing a nuclear reactor today amid fears of a meltdown, while across wide swaths of north-eastern Japan officials searched for thousands of people missing more than a day after a devastating earthquake and tsunami.

Another powerful earthquake has hit the same area where a nuclear power plant has already leaked some radiation.

A massive tsunami triggered by the largest earthquake in Japan’s recorded history slammed into the eastern coast today sweeping away boats, cars, homes and people.