The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has said Japan's nuclear crisis could continue for weeks, if not months, the New York Times reported Sunday.
Yukiya Amano, was quoted as saying the situation at the stricken Fukushima 1 nuclear power station was "still far from the end of the accident" and that the release of radioactive materials would continue, dpa reported.
The plant was damaged by the March 11 earthquake and resulting tsunami, which killed more than 10,000 in north-eastern Japan and left about 16,600 unaccounted for as of Sunday, according to Japan's National Police Agency.
Amano, a former Japanese diplomat who took over the IAEA in late 2009, said that his biggest concern now centered on spent fuel rods sitting in open cooling pools atop the reactor buildings, the paper reported.
Amano acknowledged that the authorities were still unsure about whether the reactor cores and spent fuel were covered with the water needed to cool them and end the crisis, according to the New York Times.
On Sunday, Tokyo Electric Power Co, the operator of the plant, said levels of radioactive materials detected in a reactor building at a stricken nuclear plant in north-eastern Japan were 10 million times above normal level.
Radiated water was in the basement of the turbine building attached to reactor 2 at the plant, public broadcaster NHK reported.
The operator said the high levels of radiation might have seeped from a damaged reactor core.
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