The white smoke seen as steam was confirmed to have been emitted from Reactors Nos. 2, 3 and 4. on Friday. It was reported that a large amount of it was emitted from Reactor No. 3.

It was confirmed that the temperature of spent fuel rods in the storage pool of Reactor No. 4 was 10 times higher than that of Reactor No. 3.

The Japanese government noted the accident at the nuclear plant is the worst in the history of the country.

At a time when Americans are seized with uneasiness as even the U.S. is fraught with the danger of radioactive substance leakage, AP released a report that an observation station in California detected radioactive substance believed to have leaked out of the above-said power plant.

Meanwhile, the death toll caused by the killer quake and the ensuing tsunami reached about 7,200 as of 09:00 on Saturday.

It was reported that the quake and the ensuing tsunami left 11,991 houses completely destroyed and more than 452,000 people homeless and 1 232 sections of roads damaged.

About 1 million people are now suffering due to an acute shortage of water and about 343,000 families left without the supply of electricity.

The National Land and Geography Agency of Japan quoting a survey said that more than 400 square km were submerged by tsunami.

Aftershocks are going on. There were 262 aftershocks of magnitude 5.0 and above as of noon Friday after the occurrence of the quake. NHK reported that there were 37 aftershocks of magnitude 1.2~5.9 from 17:01 on Friday to 16:24 on Saturday.