[termogard]

Within two years, the U.N. Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation will compile a report on such key issues as environmental impact and health risks of the accident, Wolfgang Weiss, chair of the committee, said at a press conference.

The committee will also check the health of workers, who are currently fighting to solve the crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant and are exposed to high levels of radiation, Weiss said.

According to Weiss, details about the plan are currently being worked out and negotiations with the Japanese government on the issue have already started.

He also said that off-site consequences of the accident in Fukushima Prefecture can be rated somewhere between the 1986 nuclear accident in Chernobyl and the 1979 Three Mile Island accident.

''It is not as dramatic as Chernobyl, but it is certainly much much more serious than in Three Mile Island,'' he said, adding that it is very difficult to foresee the consequences of the Fukushima accident since the crisis is still ongoing.

Kyodo News : U.N. to study health effects of Fukushima nuclear accident

To make room to store the highly radioactive water that is hampering the plant's restoration work, TEPCO continued to dump into the sea massive amounts of low-level contaminated water from inside a nuclear waste disposal facility at the site as well as contaminated groundwater found from around the Nos. 5 and 6 unit buildings.

TEPCO is aiming to dispose of a total of about 10,000 tons of low-level contaminated water into the sea by this weekend, a move which has sparked concern among neighboring countries and strong protests from the domestic fishing industry.

After opening up the disposal facility, which can accommodate 30,000 tons of liquid, some repair work is expected to take place for about a week to ensure that the facility can retain highly radioactive water safely without fear of the stored liquid leaking outside.

The plant's power grid and most of the emergency diesel generators were knocked out by the magnitude 9.0 earthquake and ensuing tsunami on March 11, resulting in the loss of many of the reactors' key cooling functions, partial melting of reactor cores and hydrogen explosions.

According to estimates by TEPCO announced Wednesday, 25 percent of the nuclear fuel rods have been damaged at the No. 3 reactor. The company earlier said that 70 percent of the No. 1 reactor's fuel rods and 30 percent of the No. 2 reactor's fuel rods have been damaged.

Kyodo News