AN elite team of engineers who represent Japan's desperate last line of defence against a nuclear catastrophe was last night making another bid to bring the Fukushima power plant under control.
The skeleton crew of 50 returned to ground zero after white smoke earlier belched from one reactor and fire was doused in another.
Radiation levels at the plant soared to dangerous levels before dropping later in the day.
Authorities fear the containment vessel at the plant's No. 3 reactor has ruptured, spewing radioactive steam into the atmosphere.
Japanese citizens have accused the government of withholding information in a futile attempt to avoid panic.
More than 200,000 people have been evacuated from a 30km radius of the plant, and anyone still in the area has been warned to stay indoors amid growing concerns about radiation levels.
As the nuclear crisis worsened, Japanese authorities turned to Korea and the US for help.
The container of the No. 3 reactor is feared to have been damaged and leaking high-level radiation.
The radiation level briefly topped 6.4 millisieverts per hour at the plant.
A second fire at the No. 4 reactor is believed to have been brought under control last night.
The mayor of a town near the nuclear plant said thousands of evacuees sheltering there desperately need help.
"We have received many people who were evacuated from the area near the plant," Masao Hara, mayor of Koriyama city, about 50km west of Fukushima.
"Right now some 9000 people are at shelters in Koriyama," he said, including 200 at a baseball stadium.
"What we urgently need now is fuel, heavy and light oil, water and food. More than anything else, we need fuel because we can't do anything without it. We can't stay warm or work the water pumps. I really would like to appeal to the world: We need help."
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said the Government expects to ask the US military for help. He did not elaborate.
The surge in radiation was apparently the result of an explosion in the complex's Unit 4 reactor on Tuesday.
That blast is thought to have damaged the reactor's suppression chamber, a water-filled pipe outside the nuclear core that is part of the emergency cooling system.
Officials had originally planned to use helicopters and fire trucks to spray water in a desperate effort to prevent further radiation leaks and cool down the reactors.
"Not so simple that everything will be resolved by pouring in water. We are trying to avoid creating other problems," Mr Edano said.
"We are actually supplying water from the ground, but supplying water from above involves pumping lots of water and that involves risk. We also have to consider the safety of the helicopters above."
Plant operator, the Tokyo Electric Power company, said it was considering spraying boric acid by helicopter to cool the No. 4 reactor's spent nuclear fuel rods.
Korean authorities have pledged to ship 52 tonnes of boric acid because Japan's own stockpiles have already been used up.
On Tuesday, the company said water in a pool storing the spent fuel rods may be boiling and that its level may have dropped, exposing the rods.
But high radiation levels have meant workers have been unable to pour water into the troubled pool.
An estimated 70 per cent of the nuclear fuel rods have been damaged at the plant's No. 1 reactor, and 33 per cent at the No.2 reactor, the firm said.
The cores of both reactors are believed to have partially melted.
With agencies
Herald sun
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