Another Reactor May Be Leaking Radioactivity

The news remains grim from Japan's Fukishima Dai-ichi plant. Two of the six reactors there may now be leaking radioactive steam, reports the New York Times, which again characterizes the official pronouncements as confusing. In the meantime, the 50 emergency workers who were yanked off the site earlier have returned, along with another 50, notes the Los Angeles Times.

But in a sign of the conditions inside, the government raised the maximum dose of radiation that workers can be exposed to from 100 millisieverts to 250 millisieverts. It called the move "unavoidable due to the circumstances." On a slightly more upbeat note, the Guardian highlights comments from one expert asserting that a meltdown at Fukishima would not be as bad as Chernobyl because of the "wildly different design" of the reactors. Click to read about why Japan's extensive quake planning failed to cover this. (More Japan earthquake stories.)