The Japanese TV channel NHK is reporting that radioactivity 10-million times higher than normal has been detected today in water flooding a basement of the turbine building of reactor number 2. The elements seems likely to have come from leaks from inside the reactor, or the water-filled supression chamber through which excess pressure from the reactor is vented and filtered. The reported dose level of 1,000 millisieverts/hr would appear to be lethal with just a few hours exposure. Workers have been evacuated from the site, which will hamper further attempts to bring the power plant under control. More later…

Update: Tepco are now saying that the earlier readings they announced are simply too high, and must be a mistake. They plan to retest the water.

For full coverage of the Fukushima disaster, go to Nature’s news special.