“There is talk of an apocalypse and I think the word is particularly well chosen,” he said in remarks to the European Parliament.
“Practically everything is out of control,” he added. “I cannot exclude the worst in the hours and days to come.”
Dangerous levels of radiation leaking from a crippled nuclear plant forced Japan to order 140,000 people to seal themselves indoors Tuesday after an explosion and a fire dramatically escalated the crisis spawned by a deadly tsunami.
In a nationally televised statement, Prime Minister Naoto Kan said radiation had spread from the four stricken reactors of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant along Japan’s northeastern coast.
Japanese officials told the International Atomic Energy Agency that the reactor fire was in a fuel storage pond — an area where used nuclear fuel is kept cool — and that “radioactivity is being released directly into the atmosphere.”
Long after the fire was extinguished, a Japanese official said the pool might still be boiling, though the reported levels of radiation had dropped dramatically by the end of the day.
China began evacuating its citizens on Tuesday from the worst affected areas, making it the first foreign government to pull its people from the country.
Five full busloads of people left from hard-hit Sendai on Japan’s northeast coast heading for Niigata on the opposite side of Japan, from where they will be flown back to China, the state-run Xinhua news agency said, without giving figures.
A complete evacuation could take time owing to a lack of transport and petrol, the report added. There are more than 22,000 Chinese in the affected areas.
Germany announced Tuesday the temporary shutdown of its seven oldest nuclear reactors while it conducts a safety probe in light of Japan’s atomic emergency.
“We are launching a safety review of all nuclear reactors ... with all reactors in operation since before the end of 1980 set to be idled for the period of the (three-month) moratorium,” Chancellor Angela Merkel said.
More US military crews were exposed to radiation Tuesday as the Pentagon ramped up relief flights over Japan. The Defense Department said the Navy started giving anti-radiation pills to some of those exposed, and Americans on two military bases south of Tokyo were advised to stay indoors.
Brent oil prices plunged almost $6 at one stage on Tuesday, as fears grew over the disaster in Japan, traders said.
