Japan's nuclearcrisis is slowly stabilizing and the country must now focus on repairingthe damage wrought by the devastating earthquake and tsunami thatstruck the northeast coast a month ago, Prime Minister Naoto Kan said.
He was speaking shortly afternew data showed more radiation leaked from the crippled FukushimaDaiichi nuclear power plant in the early days of the crisis than firstthought.
That new information putJapan's nuclear calamity in the same category as the world's worstnuclear disaster, Chernobyl, officials said, but the upgrade in itsseverity rating to the highest level on a globally recognized scale didnot mean the situation had suddenly become more critical.
"Thesituation at the Fukushima Daiichi plant is slowly stabilizing, step bystep, and the emission of radioactive substances is on a decliningtrend," Kan told a press briefing.
"A month has passed. We need to take steps toward restoration and reconstruction."
He said he had instructed a reconstruction panel to create a work blueprint by June.
Healso called on opposition parties, whose help he needs to pass bills ina divided parliament, to take part in drafting reconstruction plansfrom an early stage.
The governmentis considering spinning off the part of plant operator Tokyo ElectricPower Co (TEPCO) that oversees the stricken facility, Jiji news agencyreported on Tuesday.
TEPCO appearsto be no closer to restoring cooling systems at the reactors, criticalto lowering the temperature of overheated nuclear fuel rods. On Tuesday,Japan's science ministry said small amounts of strontium, one of themost harmful radioactive elements, had been found in soil near FukushimaDaiichi.
Hidehiko Nishiyama, adeputy director-general of the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency(NISA), said the decision to raise the severity of the incident fromlevel 5 to 7 -- the same as the Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine in 1986 --was based on cumulative quantities of radiation released.
Noradiation-linked deaths have been reported since the earthquake struck,and only 21 plant workers have been affected by minor radiationsickness, according to Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano. Late onTuesday, Edano said he was aware the upgrading of the severityclassification would worry people.
"Itdoesn't mean the situation today is worse than it was yesterday, itmeans the event as a whole is worse than previously thought," saidnuclear expert John Price, a former member of the Safety Policy Unit atthe UK's National Nuclear Corporation.
Lateon Tuesday, a senior official at the International Atomic Energy Agency(IAEA) said the latest data from food samples in 8 prefectures showedcontamination below permitted levels.
Earlier,NISA said the amount of radiation released into the atmosphere from theplant, 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo, was around 10 percent that ofChernobyl.
"Radiation releasedinto the atmosphere peaked from March 15 to 16. Radiation is still beingreleased, but the amount now has fallen considerably," said NISA'sNishiyama.