JAPAN Workers evacuated as radiation levels climb

Updated 45 minutes ago

The Japanese Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency says radiation levels in the ocean pose no threat to marine life or food safety. (www.greenpacks.org)

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The operator of Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear plant says the radioactivity in water that has accumulated at the No. 2 reactor is 10 million times the usual level.

TEPCO says workers have been evacuated from the reactor's turbine building.

The workers had been struggling to pump radioactive water out of the plant.

Radiation levels in the sea off the the plant are also on the rise.

The offshore radiation levels have now risen to 1,850 times normal from 1,250 on Saturday, Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said.

Senior agency official Hidehiko Nishiyama says the radiation particles will be dispersed and diluted, posing no threat to marine life or food safety.

Meanwhile, Yukiya Amano, director-general of the UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), warned Japan's nuclear emergency could go on for weeks, if not months.

"This is a very serious accident by all standards. It is not yet over," he told the New York Times.

Mr Amano, a former Japanese diplomat who visited Japan after the quake, says authorities are still unsure about whether the plant's reactor cores and spent fuel are covered with the water needed to cool them.

He told the newspaper he saw a few "positive signs" with the restoration of some electric power to the plant.

"More efforts should be done to put an end to the accident," he said, adding he was not criticising Japan's response.

The IAEA says it has sent two additional teams to Japan over the past two days, one to help in monitoring radiation and one to assess food contamination.

Engineers trying to stabilise the plant have to pump out radioactive water found in buildings housing three of the six reactors.

On Thursday, three workers were taken to hospital from reactor No. 3 after stepping in water with radiation levels 10,000 times higher than usually found in a reactor.

That raised fears the core's container could be damaged.

An official from plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) told a news conference experts still had to determine where to put some of the contaminated water while engineers were trying to fully restore the plant's power.

Two of the plant's reactors are now seen as safe but the other four are volatile, occasionally emitting steam and smoke.

However, the nuclear safety agency said on Saturday that temperature and pressure in all reactors had stabilised.

The government has said the situation was nowhere near to being resolved, although it was not deteriorating.

"We are preventing the situation from worsening," chief cabinet secretary Yukio Edano said.

"But there is still no room for complacency."

So far, no significant levels of radiation have been detected beyond the vicinity of the plant in Fukushima.

The crisis at the plant, 240 kilometres north of Tokyo, has overshadowed a relief and recovery effort from the magnitude 9.0 quake and the huge tsunami it triggered on March 11 that left more than 27,100 people dead or missing in north-east Japan.

- Reuters

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