Earlier this month, Fukushima's operator TEPCO announced that radioactive water was still leaking over underground barriers. The prime minister promised "firm measures," but a nuclear expert stated last week that he believes the leaks are even worse than stated by plant and government officials. Mycle Schneider, a consultant on nuclear issues, told the BBC that water is leaking all over the site and that there are no accurate figures for radiation. The Japanese nuclear watchdog raised the incident level from one to three on a scale measuring severity of atomic incidents after events in the recent weeks, acknowledging that the power station was in its greatest crisis since 2011. However, some experts worry that the situation is worse than officials are willing to admit. "The quantities of water they are dealing with are absolutely gigantic," said Schneider, referring to the 1,000 tanks built to store cooling water, believed to already be at around 85% of their capacity. "What is the worse is the water leakage everywhere else--not just from the tanks. It is leaking out from the basements, it is leaking out from the cracks all over the place. Nobody can measure that." For the full story, see http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-23779561. Earlier: http://elr.info/international/international-update/trouble-nuclear-power-northern-asia.