The radiation released in the first days of the Fukushima nuclear disaster was almost 2-1/2 times the amount first estimated by Japanese safety regulators, the operator of the crippled plant said in a report released on Thursday.

Tokyo Electric Power said its own analysis conducted over the past year put the amount of radiation released in the first three weeks of the accident at about one-sixth the radiation released during the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.

Spikes in radiation caused by the Fukushima nuclear disaster were below cancer-causing levels in almost all of Japan, but infants in one town appear to be at a higher risk of developing thyroid cancer, the World Health Organization said on Wednesday.

In a preliminary report, independent experts said that people in two locations in Fukushima Prefecture may have received a radiation dose of 10-50 millisieverts (mSv) in the year after the accident at the power station operated by TEPCO.

Radiation doses received after the Fukushima nuclear accident last year were below international reference levels in all but two locations in Japan and below the level seen as "very small" in neighbouring countries, the World Health Organization said on Wednesday.

The preliminary report by independent experts found that, using conservative assumptions, people in two locations of relatively high exposure in Fukushima prefecture may have received a dose of 10-50 millisieverts (mSv) in the year after the accident at the power station operated by TEPCO.

Britain's ageing nuclear reactors, which were due to close in the next decade, are set to be kept open under a plan approved by the industry's regulator.

In a move that could have far-reaching implications for the government's energy policy, the Office for Nuclear Regulation has told the Guardian it is working with the country's dominant nuclear operator, the French-owned company EDF, to extend the life of its eight nuclear power stations in the UK, and that it is "content for the plants to continue to operate", as long as they pass regular safety tests.

State-owned Nuclear Power Corporation (NPCIL) expects the much-delayed Koodankulam nuclear project’s first unit to commence commercial operations by August 2012, and the second of the two 1,000 MWe (mega watt electrical) units by March 2013. This is as per the new official commissioning schedules announced for the project, which has suffered an over five-month delay due to protests.

Anti-nuclear demonstrators gathered on Sunday evening at Dadar’s Chaityabhoomi along with National Award-winning filmmaker Anand Patwardhan, activist Dr Binayak Sen and his wife Ilina, and members of the Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace, Konkan Vinashakari Prakalp Virodhi Samiti, and Konkan Bachao Andolan Priyar Dravidar Kazhagam. They were protesting against the controversial nuclear reactor project in Koodankulam, Tamil Nadu.

Fresh water for ensuring unhindered operation of the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project (KKNPP) will not be drawn from the Pechipaarai dam or the Tamirabharani, the outgoing Site Director, M. Kasinath Balaji, has said.

“Since we've installed two desalination plants to meet the drinking water requirements of Anu Vijay township (where KKNPP personnel reside) and also the KKNPP site, we will never draw water from the Pechipaarai dam in Kanyakumari district or the Tamirabharani, lifeline of southern districts, at any point of time in future.