The Fukushima Dailchi nuclear crisis in Japan has been re-rated to be a level 7 nuclear disaster*, the same level as the Chernobyl Ukraine nuclear disaster of 1986. While the dispersement of radiation from the nuclear power plants in Fukushima is said to be much less than Chernobyl, the Tokyo Electric Power Company and Japanese civil authorities have yet to “stabilize” their troubled reactors. The future level of radiation contamination in Japan and nearby nations is unknown at this time as is how long this crisis will continue.

*Reuters 2011/04/12 - Japan raises nuclear crisis to on par with Chernobyl

On this gloomy note it is time to make take a look at the history of how nuclear power was instituted in this nation. It was not a decision made in the public sphere. While some activists were well educated in the problems of nuclear power, the hearings to establish the plants examined only the financial side of building nuclear power plants.

This is according to the late Evelyn Stebbins of Rocky River who was a dogged citizen intervener in federal nuclear power hearings on both the Davis-Bessie and Perry nuclear power stations. The question of safety on nuclear power could not be brought up at hearings because, “they've already decided that nuclear power is safe.”

Despite getting a power supply up and running at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan, which would help the cooling systems start working again, things are still not under control at the nuclear reactors. Japanese officials on Friday announced a potentially serious setback, saying that a suspected breach in the reactor core at one unit could mean more serious radioactive contamination.

Because of the uncertainty of the situation, work at the Fukushima Daiich nuclear plant has been halted. Dozens had been working hard to stop the overheated plant form leaking dangerous radiation. The plant has leaked some low levels of radiation already, but officials say that breach could mean a larger release.

Suspicions of a possible breach were raised when two workers waded into water 10,000 times more radioactive than is normal, and suffered skin burns. The cause remains unclear.

Workers at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear facility in northeastern Japan, an area struck hard by last week's 9.0-magnitude earthquake and tsunami, have suspended operations to prevent the plant from melting down. The decision to remove workers from the failing nuclear plant was made after a surge in radiation made it too dangerous for workers to remain at the facility.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said that work on dousing the reactors with water had been disrupted by the need to withdraw workers from the area.

Early Wednesday the level of radiation at the plant surged to 1,000 millisieverts, before coming down to 800-600 millisieverts. Even though it dropped, it is still a level much higher than average.

Edano added:

"So the workers cannot carry out even minimal work at the plant now. Because of the radiation risk, we are on standby."

According to experts, exposure of around 1,000 millisieverts is enough to cause radiation sickness.

Officials said earlier that 70 percent of fuel rods at one of the six reactors at the plant were significantly damaged. News reports also said that 33 percent of fuel rods were damaged at another reactor. Officials had said that they were going to ask the U.S. and Japanese militaries to help them spray the plants with water by helicopter in an attempt to prevent further radiation leaks and to cool down the reactors.

140,000 people in the region of the Fukushima Daiichi plant have been ordered to stay in doors. A little radiation was detected 150 miles south in Tokyo, which sparked a panic population to begin frantically buying food and water.

An explosion on Tuesday at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in northeastern Japan has elevated the situation there to a "serious accident" on a level just below Chernobyl, according to a French nuclear official.

Andre Claude Lacoste, president of France's nuclear safety authority, referenced the international scale that rates the severity of nuclear incidents. The International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale (INES) goes from level 1, which indicates very little danger, to level 7 which is a "major accident" in which there has been a large release of radioactive material and there will be widespread health and environmental effects.

Lacoste said:

"It's clear we are at Level 6, that's to say we're at a level in between what happened at Three Mile Island and Chernobyl."

Japanese nuclear authorities had initially rated the incident at a Level 4. Level 4 is characterized as a minor release of radioactive material that necessitates only measures to control food due to contamination.

With the latest explosion the Japanese have not assigned it a new numberand the IAEA has also not put a number on it. But whatever the level, experts are warning that it is too early and too little is known to determine what it means for the people living in the region of the Daiichi plant.

Japanese nuclear officials are now saying that they may seek out the assistance of the U.S. and Japanese militaries to help spray water from helicopters into an overheating spent fuel storage pool. Tokyo Electric Power is entertaining the helicopter idea because the risk of radiation contamination from approaching the pool directly.

A Japanese official notes that the pool could be boiling, which would raise the risk that water used to keep the fuel cool might evaporate.

The Japanese government has ordered 140,000 people to seal themselves indoors after dangerous levels of radiation began leaking from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear facility in northeastern Japan. An explosion early Tuesday and resulting fire has dramatically escalated the nuclear crisis which was spawned by Friday's magnitude 9.0 earthquake and the resulting tsunami.

Prime Minister Naoto Kan said in a nationally televised statement that radiation has spread from the four damaged reactors at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant.

Japanese officials reported to the International Atomic Energy Agency that the reactor fire was in a storage pond and that "radioactivity is being released directly into the atmosphere." Even after the fire was put out, a Japanese official said that it could still be boiling.

The earthquake that struck northeastern Japan on Friday was initally measured to be an 8.8-magnitude. The U.S. Geological Survey deemed it to be an 8.9-magnitude, and now on Sunday, the Japan Meteorological Agency has upgraded it to a solid 9.0.

The upgrade now moves the quake up from the fifth-most powerful earthquake ever recorded to a tie for fourth. The 1952 Kamchatka quake is tied for fourth. First, second and third on the list include Chile's 9.5 quake in 1960, Alaska's 9.2 in 1964, and Sumatra's 9.1 in 2004.

More than 2,000 people are believed to have died so far and many thousands more are still missing or unaccounted for.

The Japanese government is now operating under the assumption that meltdowns are underway at two nuclear reactors. A government official added that as of yet, there are no indications of hazardous emissions of radioactive material into the atmosphere.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said that there is a "possibility" of a meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi plant's No. 1 reactor, adding that, "It is inside the reactor. We can't see." He added that authorities are "assuming the possibility of a meltdown" at the facility's No. 3 reactor.

A nuclear meltdown is a catastrophic failure of the reactor core, wth potential for widespread radiation release.

Efforts to control the temperature of atomic material, by pumping in sea water and boron, are underway. Late Saturday, four people were hurt in an explosion.

Edano said that so far only a "minor level" of radiation has been released into the environment and that it came from a controlled release of radioactive steam. He insists that there have been no eaks yet. Edano added, "We do not believe it is harmful to human health."

Photo: The Fukushima Daiichi power plant in Japan before the earthquake and tsunami.

Japan is struggling to prevent a nuclear disaster after an explosion at a nuclear plant in the wake of the devastating 8.9 earthquake and subsequent tsunamis that struck on Friday.

Tens of thousands of residents in a 12 mile radius of the Fukushima Daiichi plant, and those within a 6 mile radius of a plant in Futuba are being evacuated by authorities.

The explosion followed warnings of a potential meltdown after problems with the cooling system, as well as confirmation of a radiation leak at Fukushima No. 1 plant. The Kyodo news agency, however, said that nuclear safety officials said that it was unlikely that the reactor had suffered serious damage.

Kyodo cited an official who said that the rate of hourly radiation leaking from Fukushima was equal to the amount usually permitted in a year. Previously, authorities had heralded a successful release of radioactive gases to reduce pressure inside the reactor, which could account for some of the high levels.

Yuji Yagi, a professor at the University of Tsukuba, said that a displacement as large as 20 meters in a fault about 500 kilometers long and 200 km wide is what triggered the 8.9-magnitude earthquake that shook northeastern Japan on Friday.

Yagi said that the boundary of a large tectonic plate stretching from ofshore Ibarawi prefectures underwent a significant realignment. He said:

"Many earthquake researchers did not expect such a quake to happen."

He added that he estimates that the quake's magnitude reached 9.0, compared to the 8.8 announced by the Japan Meterological Agency and the 8.9 announced by the U.S. Geological Survey.

Yagi says that the northern part of the fault shifted first, followed by the southern part about 70 seconds later. He said that the cracking in the fault continued for around 150 seconds.

Photo: The Fukushima Daiichi power plant in Japan.

In and near Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, radiation rose to an unusually high level following the massive earthquake that struck northern Japan on Friday. Kyodo Times in Japan reports that this was the first case of an external leak of radioactive substances since the disaster.

The country's nuclear safety agency denied that radiation amount will pose an immediate threat to nearby residents. However, the agency also decided to evacuate the area surrounding the Fukushima No. 2 nuclear plant as it too has earthquake triggered malfunctions.

Both plants are set to release pressure in containers housing their reactors under the order of the government in an effort to avoid the plants sustaining further damage and losing critical containment function.

Releasing the pressure would involve releasing steam that would likely include radioactive materials.

The evacuation are was also expanded from 3km (1.8 miles) to 10km (6.2 miles), as the government declared the Fukushima No. 2 plant is under a state of atomic power emergency.