First footage from inside Fukushima nuclear plant as firefighters battle to cool reactors
A video showing firefighters braving contamination risks at Fukushima nuclear power plant and battling to cool down overheating reactors has been released by the Tokyo Fire Department.
The footage, which was shot on March 18, shows firefighters preparing to hose reactor No. 3 at the plant, which had been emitting high levels of radiation.
Workers at the plant have been ordered to leave the site after black smoke began rising from one of its six reactors.
Japan has raised the severity rating of the nuclear crisis to level 5 from 4 on the seven-level international scale, putting it on a par with the Three Mile Island accident in Pennsylvania in 1979. Chernobyl, in Ukraine, was a 7 on that scale.
