Japan has lifted the serverity level of the Fukushima accident from 4 to 5

11.35 Update: The Japanese Nuclear Agency raised from 4 to 5 the severity level of the accident at Fukushima.

10.10 Update: Japanese engineers take into account burying the nuclear reactor in sand and concrete in order to save Japan from a nuclear catastrophe.

Nevertheless, the potential nuclear disaster at Fukushima has a good chance of being avoided. The technicians have restored the electricity supply necessary for the cooling pumps at reactors 5 and 6. The situation situation still remains critic at the other four reactors, more seriously damaged by explosions and fires.

Meanwhile, the radioactivity level near the nuclear power plant has decreased slightly. A priority remains cooling the first four reactors, where it's believed that part of the nuclear fuel (in the reactor's core) has already melted. Technicians continue their efforts to restore the operation of the cooling pumps, which triggered the this chain of events in the first place. Until now, water has been poured over the reactors from helicopters, which seems to have slowly started to stabilize the situation.

As a precaution, passengers and goods arriving from Japan are being tested for radioactivity in airports. So far they have only detected radiation in certain parcels of goods, but the level is still far below the risk limits.