Radiation levels rising in ocean outside power plant

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.

Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) said it was looking into a report from the International Atomic Energy Agency about high levels of radiation in the village of Iitate, 40km from the Fukushima power plant.

The agency said the level in one spot in Iitate was twice its suggested threshold for evacuation.