Good morning. There is news just coming from Japan that a surge in radiation at the Fukushima power plant mean workers were unable to continue even minimal efforts to work there.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano has said that work on dousing reactors with water was disrupted when workers were forced to withdraw after radiation levels surged early in the day.This follows reports that a white plume of smoke has been seen rising from the crippled nuclear plant's No 3 reactor.
In this screenshot from Japan's NHK television, the No 4 unit of the Fukushima Daiichi complex is seen damaged on 15 March. Photograph: AP Japan's nuclear nightmare continues, as the situation at the damaged Fukushima Daiichi plant remains grave and the latest developments within the crippled reactors show a further deterioration.
Here is a round-up of the latest news:• Japan's chief cabinet secretary Yukio Edano announced that the containment vessel of the Fukushima Daiichi No 3 reactor is thought to have been severely damaged and may have leaked radioactive steam, emitting high-level radiation.
• Japan's nuclear safety agency required Fukushima plant workers to evacuate the site due to high radiation levels, but the government later upped the legal radiation exposure level, allowing work to continue inside the plant.
• Smoke was seen rising from the No 3 reactor from the early hours of Wednesday morning.
• The No 4 reactor remains a source of major concern, with gaping holes in the reactor's outer building and another fire within the reactor was spotted at 5.45am JST that may have lasted half an hour. The reactor's internal temperature rose to 84C as cooling remained difficult.
• Japan's central bank has injected a further $40bn into the financial markets, meaning that the Bank of Japan has added nearly $330bn in liquidity in the last three days. The Nikkei stock exchange has rebounded a little as manufacturing companies announce the resumption of production.
More bad news: Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said the radiation level at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant reached 10 millisievert per hour at one point on Wednesday morning, possibly due to the damage at its No 2 reactor the day before, the government's nuclear safety agency said.
The maximum level was measured at the plant's front gate at 10:40am. It fell to 6.4 millisievert at 10:45am and to 2.3 millisievert at 10:54am but rose again to about 3.4 millisievert at 11am according to Kyodo To make sense of all this, it appears that reactor no 4 was badly damaged by the hydrogen explosions in nearby reactors, and it is possible that the unit's water level has disappeared entirely.
Tepco said that water in a pool storing the spent fuel rods may be boiling and that its level may have dropped, exposing the rods. The government ordered the firm to inject water into the pool ''as soon as possible to avert a major nuclear disaster.''Due to high radiation levels at the reactor, workers have been unable to pour water into the troubled pool.
Japan's health ministry announced the rise in the legal radiation exposure limit because workers could no longer get close enough to the Fukushima Daiichi No 4 reactor for urgent attempts to repair the reactor's cooling system.
The ministry raised the level two and a half times, to 250 millseiverts.Earlier, Kyodo news agency said 730 out of a total of 800 workers had been evacuated from the site.
"The workers cannot carry out even minimal work at the plant now," chief cabinet secretary Yukio Edano told a press conference. "Because of the radiation risk we are on standby."
This is Tania Branigan in Beijing taking over from Richard
A quick update on casualties from the earthquake and tsunami: the national police agency is saying that 3,676 deaths are confirmed and 7,845 people are registered as unaccounted for. But Japanese media have pointed out that many bodies have been found but not identified. The Guardian's Jonathan Watts has reported from Ishinomaki on how authorities are struggling to deal with the dead and are now contemplating mass burials.
Seoul's Yonhap news agency is reporting that South Korea will send part of its reserve of boric acid - used to slow down fission reactions - to its neighbour. Japan has used up most of its own stockpile to try to cool down the reactor cores.
A colleague points out that Couchsurfing has set up a site for people displaced by the disasters. People are offering space in Hiroshima, Osaka, Yokohama and numerous other cities.
More from Fukushima: Reuters is reporting that authorities plan to bulldoze an emergency route to crippled reactor No.4 to allow access for fire trucks, although it appears this morning's blaze is now out. The unit was not operating when the earthquake hit but was storing spent fuel rods.
Kyodo says that workers the facility have been unable to pour water into the pool containing the spent fuel rods because of high radiation levels. Tepco, the plant's operators, are considering spraying the reactor with boric acid from overhead, warning: ''The possibility of recriticality is not zero". Kyodo has just flashed up a statement that winds are preventing Self Defence Force helicopters from dousing it with water, citing an unnamed minister.
There's a lot of concern about the conditions survivors face. NHK are reporting snow in Miyagi prefecture and the Japanese meteorological agency predicts snow in Iwate today with heavier falls tomorrow. Across the disaster zone, temperatures will drop as low as -5C overnight.
The government's chief spokesman, Yukio Edano, has asked the public not to panic-buy fuel, warning: ''The supply situation for fuel such as gasoline, heavy oil and light oil is worsening in the quake-hit areas."
The defence ministry has announced it is sharing some of its reserves, but needs to hold some back to avoid disrupting the rescue operations.
Private enterprises are offering help but Kyodo reports that the Japan Business Federation's chairman said the government needs a stronger command centre to channel assistance.
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