For the first time since Japan’s nuclear disaster three years ago, authorities are allowing residents to return to live in their homes in a tiny part of a 12-mile evacuation zone around the Fukushima plant.

The operator of Japan’s crippled nuclear power plant says six workers have been exposed to highly radioactive water that poured out of a treatment unit when they removed a pipe.

People across Japan today remembered the massive earthquake and tsunami that struck the nation one year ago, killing just over 19,000 people and unleashing the world’s worst nuclear crisis in a quarter century.

Experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency have arrived in the Japanese city of Fukushima to observe the massive decontamination effort under way after the world's worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl.

A STRONG earthquake yesterday jolted the same area of northeastern Japan that was hit by a massive quake in March.

Japanese whalers caught two animals along the northern coast that had traces of radiation, presumably from leaks at a damaged nuclear power plant, officials said.

Germany's coalition government has decided to shut down all of the country's nuclear power plants by 2022.

It is reported that the Sellafield plant in England will not be included in a round of stress tests on nuclear facilities across Europe.

JAPAN has unveiled new plans to contain the crisis at a crippled nuclear plant after admitting it faced greater challenges than first disclosed.

REFERRING to the recent incident at the Fukushima nuclear plant, Adi Roche says “If one of the most advanced countries can’t cope with nuclear power, it proves how dangerous it is” (April 27).

RUSSIAN President Dmitry Medvedev called on the world community to tighten safety rules at nuclear plants and tell the truth when there were accidents like those at Chernobyl and Fukushima.

Authorities may for the first time ban access to the evacuation zone around Japan’s crippled nuclear plant today amid concerns over radiation risks to residents who may be returning to check on their homes.

Japan’s nuclear safety agency told plant operators to check and improve outside power links to avoid earthquake-related breakdowns similar to those causing the country’s current nuclear crisis.

JAPAN raised the crisis level at its crippled nuclear plant to a severity on a par with the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, citing high overall radiation leaks that have contaminated the air, tap water, vegetables and seawater.

A MAJOR aftershock rocked north-east Japan yesterday and a tsunami warning was issued for the coast devastated by last month’s huge quake and tsunami that crippled a nuclear power plant.

Japan has been rattled by a strong aftershock and tsunami warning nearly a month after a devastating earthquake and tsunami flattened the north-eastern coast.

WORKERS at Japan’s crippled atomic power plant have plugged a hole spewing highly radioactive water into the ocean, boosting efforts to contain the world’s worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl.

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.

JAPANESE Prime Minister Naoto Kan said yesterday he was ready for a long fight to bring a quake- hit nuclear plant under control but was convinced Japan would overcome the world’s worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl in 1986.

Japan says the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant will have to be shut down - after sustaining catastrophic damage during the earthquake and tsunami.

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.

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 has deployed military helicopters, high-pressure water cannons and fire trucks in an increasingly desperate attempt to cool overheating nuclear fuel at the wrecked Fukushima plant.

Workers at the stricken Japanese nuclear plant need to keep up recovery efforts to control the reactors over the next few "critical" days, experts said today.

DANGEROUS levels of radiation leaking from a crippled nuclear plant forced Japan to order 140,000 people to seal themselves indoors yesterday after an explosion and a fire escalated the crisis spawned by a deadly tsunami.

JAPAN continues to grapple with a potential nuclear catastrophe after a fire continued to blaze at the stricken Fukushima plant last night.

A new fire has broken out at the No4 reactor unit at Japan’s stricken Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power plant.

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.

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