4.13am: More bad news: Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said the radiation level at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant reached 10 millisievert per hour at one point on Wednesday morning, possibly due to the damage at its No 2 reactor the day before, the government's nuclear safety agency said.
The maximum level was measured at the plant's front gate at 10:40am. It fell to 6.4 millisievert at 10:45am and to 2.3 millisievert at 10:54am but rose again to about 3.4 millisievert at 11am according to Kyodo
4.36am: To make sense of all this, it appears that reactor no 4 was badly damaged by the hydrogen explosions in nearby reactors, and it is possible that the unit's water level has disappeared entirely.
Tepco said that water in a pool storing the spent fuel rods may be boiling and that its level may have dropped, exposing the rods. The government ordered the firm to inject water into the pool ''as soon as possible to avert a major nuclear disaster.''
Due to high radiation levels at the reactor, workers have been unable to pour water into the troubled pool.
4.50am: Japan's health ministry announced the rise in the legal radiation exposure limit because workers could no longer get close enough to the Fukushima Daiichi No 4 reactor for urgent attempts to repair the reactor's cooling system.
The ministry raised the level two and a half times, to 250 millseiverts.
Earlier, Kyodo news agency said 730 out of a total of 800 workers had been evacuated from the site.
"The workers cannot carry out even minimal work at the plant now," chief cabinet secretary Yukio Edano told a press conference. "Because of the radiation risk we are on standby."
5.21am (2.21pm JST): Seoul's Yonhap news agency is reporting that South Korea will send part of its reserve of boric acid - used to slow down fission reactions - to its neighbour. Japan has used up most of its own stockpile to try to cool down the reactor cores.
5.46am (2.46pm JST): More from Fukushima: Reuters is reporting that authorities plan to bulldoze an emergency route to crippled reactor No.4 to allow access for fire trucks, although it appears this morning's blaze is now out. The unit was not operating when the earthquake hit but was storing spent fuel rods.
Kyodo says that workers the facility have been unable to pour water into the pool containing the spent fuel rods because of high radiation levels. Tepco, the plant's operators, are considering spraying the reactor with boric acid from overhead, warning: ''The possibility of recriticality is not zero".
Kyodo has just flashed up a statement that winds are preventing Self Defence Force helicopters from dousing it with water, citing an unnamed minister.
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