Japan's Prime Minister calling nuclear situation "very grave and serious" Posted: Friday, March 25, 2011 12:30 PM EST
TOKOYO, Japan (NBC)--Japan's prime minister is describing the situation at the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant as "very grave and serious."
Officials suspect one of the reactor cores may have been breached, a situation that could mean more serious radioactive contamination.
The apparent leak is in Reactor Three which has been the most troubled at the Fukushima site.
Friday, Prime Minister Naoto Kan addressed the nation, "The government is stepping up monitoring efforts to control the radiation."
The problem came to light when three workers got exposed to excess radiation on Thursday. A day later, two of them were taken to a special radiation hospital in Tokyo.
Measurements of the radiation in water in the plant found it to be 10,000 times normal. Today an official was asked about the source.
"When you take a look at the water, it appears that the source of the radiation is from the nuclear reactor."
Also today, the government said people living with 18 miles of the reactor site should consider a voluntary evacuation. Earlier, they had suggested people in that zone stay indoors.
The next big questions: how much of the radiation is leaking and how much will be remain in the concrete and steel containment facility that surrounds it and how much gets into the environment.
Reactor number three, where a hydrogen explosion destroyed the building covering the containment facility, is considered the most dangerous because its fuel contains plutonium which is even more dangerous than the uranium in the other reactors.
"Nuclear engineers tell me that there is no clear path forward, there is no obvious next step. The only thing that is clear, is this is going to be dangerous and go on for weeks and maybe longer," said NBC News reporter Robert Bazell.
Two weeks after a disastrous earthquake and tsunami hit Japan, the   has been described by the Prime Minister as "very grave and serious". In a nationally televised report to the nation on Friday,  said the Japanese government was "not in a position where we can be optimistic."

Radiation is reported to still be leaking from the plant, in . "The source of the radiation seems to be the ," said  official Hidehiko Nishiyama, adding that radiation was "more likely" coming from the core than from the reactor's .  

On Thursday three workers stepped into contaminated cooling water in the reactor's turbine room  while trying  to replace cables at  reactor No. 3, Nishiyama said. The water seeped into the the boots of two of the workers, touching their skin and causing lesions; the third worker's clothing  protected him from the water. The two workers with skin lesions were hospitalized for radiation exposure. The radiation level of the contaminated water measured 10,000 times the level of cooling water in an undamaged reactor.


Work has been stopped on attempts to reattach a permanent power line to the  in reactor No. 3, and the building has been evacuated. Nishiyama could give no predictions of when work would resume. The possibility that water is leaking from the core of reactor No. 3 increases the danger for workers who attempt to cool the crippled plant. The reactors must be cooled before more safety work can begin. 

Japan had been using seawater for cooling  since the disaster crippled the power plant's cooling systems, but U.S. officials were concerned that  saltwater could harm the  equipment, causing it to seize up and corrode, thereby worsening the situation.




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