Russian sanitary and consumers rights watchdog ordered to closely monitor radiation levels in Russian Far East following controversial reports of possible leak from a nuclear reactor in Japan.
Gennady Onishchenko, Russia's chief sanitary official, ordered to use all available equipment as the majority of Japanese NPPs ae situated along the coast, hit by a powerful quake and tsunami waves on Friday.
"Almost all [Japanese NPPs] are located on man-made banks and islands," Onishchenko said. "Quite a few officially confirmed nuclear incidents occurred in the past few years in Japan, some of them caused nuclear-polluted gas and liquids to leak."
"In the past years, about 20 accidents [at Japanese nuclear plants] were registered, some even led to human casualties. We are worried about that," he said.
Increased radiation levels were registered at the Fukushima nuclear plant in northeast Japan as power shortages caused the reactor to overheat, the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) said. People living within the 10-km range from the plant were told to evacuate.
In some parts of the plant, radiation levels rose up to 1,000 times above the norm, and are about eight times above the norm outside the station, the Kyodo news agency said on Saturday.
The state of emergency was declared at the station.
In an attempt to ease pressure which is building up inside the reactor, plant employees will perform a controlled release of radioactive gas from the reactor's containment structure on Saturday.
Japanese official gave controversial comments on the accident. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano did not confirm reports of leak but said that emergency services "should be prepared for the worst-case scenario."
In a phone conversation with U.S. President Barack Obama, Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan said there were no signs that any radioactive substance leaked into the environment.
But Japanese Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Banri Kaieda said a small leak from a reactor in Fukushima was possible, the Kyodo agency said.
Japan has more than 54 nuclear energy units in operation, and about one quarter of all energy produced in the country comes from nuclear power plants.
At least 388 people are officially listed as dead, and hundreds are missing in Japan after an 8.9-magnitude earthquake struck about 373 km (232 miles) north-east of Tokyo on Friday afternoon, sparking a series of tsunamis.
Several aftershocks occurred shortly after the initial quake. The strongest was measured at 7.1 on the Richter scale.
MOSCOW, March 12 (RIA Novosti)
