On Monday the Japan Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry admitted the meltdown of nuclear fuel rods at Reactors Nos. 1, 2 and 3 of the plant. Radioactive substances were detected in the pool of the building which houses a turbine because they cannot leak unless nuclear fuel rods are melted

Sources said that the Japanese government has so far asserted that fuel rods were slightly damaged while denying the view of experts that the nuclear fuel rods might be melted due to the successive explosion of reactors.

The Japanese newspaper Tokyo Shimbun Thursday published the results of the measurement made by the Tokyo Electric Power Co. of the total amount of radioactive substances that leaked into the sea from the plant from April 1 to 6.

According to them, 520 tons of high concentration of contaminated water flowed into the sea from the pool close to the intake of Reactor No. 2 of the plant. The total amount of radiation surpassed 5,000 TBq. This is 20,000 times the amount the Japan Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency allows the plant to release outdoors annually, the paper said.

A medical check was made of the mothers living in the areas about 200 km away from Fukushima Prefecture after the Japanese government declared the areas within the radius of 20 km centering the plant as areas for blockade. The results of the check led to detecting traces of radioactive substance in the milk of some mothers.

The damage by quakes and the ensuing tsunami is on the steady increase.

The Japan National Police Agency said that the death toll increased to 14,001 and those unaccounted for to 13 660 as of 18:00 Tuesday.

The number of the families and households still left without the supply of electricity and water in the quake-afflicted areas reached three million and 150,000 respectively.

250 fishing ports were damaged in Iwate and Miyagi prefectures and the Ministry of Agriculture, Forest and Fisheries estimated that the amount of direct economic loss in the fishery field in the stricken areas would reach 180 billion yen.

Aftershocks are going on.

A 6 magnitude quake jolted Chiba Prefecture on the night of Thursday. Its epicenter was 70 km deep in the waters off the prefecture.

A 5 magnitude quake jolted the waters off Fukushima Prefecture at the dawn of Friday.

It was reported that this quake greatly shook buildings in Tokyo and other places, throwing inhabitants into uneasiness.

The Meteorological Agency warned that more than 6 magnitude quake might occur in the future.

Meanwhile, quake experts at Tohoku University were of the view that the seabed of the waters off Miyagi Prefecture moved 31 metres east-southeastward due to the recent massive quake.