JAPAN’S Fukushima nuclear power plant may not be brought under control for several more months following the devastating earthquake and tsunami on March 11.

Japan’s tsunami-stricken nuclear power plant is leaking highly radioactive water into the sea, nuclear safety officials said.

Japan’s prime minister has promised to win the battle against an overheating nuclear plant even as atomic safety officials questioned the accuracy of radiation measurements at the complex.

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.

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 toxic plutonium is seeping from the damaged nuclear power plant in Japan’s tsunami disaster zone into the soil outside, officials said.

WORKERS discovered new pools of radioactive water leaking from Japan’s crippled nuclear complex as emergency crews struggled to pump out hundreds of tonnes of contaminated water and bring the plant back under control.

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.

US naval barges loaded with freshwater sped toward Japan’s overheated nuclear plant today to help workers scrambling to stem a worrying rise in radioactivity and remove dangerously contaminated water from the facility.