Record Levels of Radiation Found in Seawater Near Fukushima

The president of the plant’s utility company has been hospitalized for hypertension as Japan’s nuclear crisis takes a turn for the worse.

The damage done by radiation leaking from the Fukushima nuclear plant could be worse than previously thought. Seawater outside the plant was found to contain levels of radioactive iodine 3,335 times higher than normal, the highest levels recorded since an earthquake and tsunami knocked out the plant’s cooling system almost three weeks ago. Crews have been cooling the plant’s reactors using seawater, which is now apparently leaking back into the ocean. A spokesman for Fukushima operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. said that company president Masataka Shimizu had been hospitalized Tuesday suffering from dizziness and high blood pressure. Shimizu, 66, has rarely been seen in public since a press conference two days after the disaster struck.