Tokyo protesters demand all nuclear power stations be shut down after agency admits terrible mistake over radiation level readings - 28th Mar 2011

Several hundred protesters took to the streets in Tokyo yesterday to demand the closure of all nuclear plants - as workers at Japan’s crippled nuclear plant fled for their lives following massive radiation readings which later turned out to be false.

The furious demonstrators gathered outside the head office of the Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco), which operates the ill-fated Fukushima station as Japan's nuclear crisis continued.

Tepco officials said yesterday that radiation in leaking water in the Unit 2 reactor was 10 million times above normal - an apparent spike that sent employees fleeing the unit. The day ended with officials saying the huge figure had been miscalculated and offering apologies.

'The number is not credible,' Tepco spokesman Takashi Kurita said hours later. 'We are very sorry.'

Then, Tepco Vice President Sakae Muto said a new test had found radiation levels 100,000 times above normal - far better than the first results, though still very high. Read More