Japan’s nuclear crisis continues to worsen as authorities race to find a way to cool the overheating reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station. Earlier today, Japan raised the nuclear alert level at the crippled plant from a four to a five, on par with Three Mile Island. Japan is continuing to dump water on the reactors while attempting to fix a power cable that could help restart the water pumps needed to cool the overheating nuclear fuel rods. For the first time, Japanese engineers have conceded they have considered burying the nuclear reactors in sand and concrete, the same method used to seal huge leakages from Chernobyl in 1986. At the White House, President Obama said radiation from the Japan reactor is not expected to reach the United States. He also announced a review of the nation’s nuclear power plants.

President Obama: “We do not expect harmful levels of radiation to reach the United States, whether it’s the West Coast, Hawaii, Alaska or U.S. territories in the Pacific. Our nuclear power plants have undergone exhaustive study and have been declared safe for any number of extreme contingencies. But when we see a crisis like the one in Japan, we have a responsibility to learn from this event and to draw from those lessons to ensure the safety and security of our people.”

The number of dead and missing from Japan’s devastating earthquake and tsunami has now topped 16,000. It is the deadliest natural disaster to hit Japan in nearly a century.