Japan nuclear crisis on edge as toll of dead or missing surpasses 21,00 tsunami, people, power, help

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Japan nuclear crisis on edge as toll of dead or missing surpasses 21,000
Radiation traces found in food and water


TOKYO — Japan hoped power lines restored to its stricken nuclear plant may help solve the world’s worst atomic crisis in 25 years, triggered by an earthquake and tsunami that also left more than 21,000 people dead or missing.

The Asian nation’s people are in shock at both the ongoing battle to avert deadly radiation at the six-reactor Fukushima plant and a still-rising death toll from the March 11 disaster.

The world’s third largest economy has suffered an estimated $250 billion of damage with entire towns in the northeast obliterated in Japan’s darkest moment since World War Two.

Tokyo’s markets are closed for a holiday on Monday.

Elsewhere, investors will be weighing risks to the global economy from Japan’s multiple crisis, along with conflict in Libya and other unrest in the Arab world.

Easing Japan’s gloom briefly, local TV showed one moving survival tale: an 80-year-old woman and her 16-year-old grandson rescued from their damaged home after nine days.

At Fukushima, around 300 engineers were working round-the-clock inside an evacuation zone to contain the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl, Ukraine, in 1986.

They have been spraying the coastal complex with sea-water so fuel rods will not overheat and emit radiation. Hopes for a more permanent solution depend on connecting electricity cables to reactivate on-site water pumps at each of the reactors.

"There have been some positive developments in the last 24 hours but overall the situation remains very serious," said Graham Andrew, a senior official of Vienna-based U.N. watchdog the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Working in suits sealed by duct tape, engineers have managed to re-establish power cables to the No. 1, 2, 5 and 6 reactors and plan to start testing systems soon, officials say.

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The deaths are gone (rest in peace...), should place more attention on the survivors...

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Medical staff use a Geiger counter to screen a photographer for possible radiation exposure at a public welfare center in Niigata, northern Japan. Radiation has been released into the atmosphere at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant run by Tokyo Electric Power Co. on the country's northeast coast, which was badly damaged after a massive earthquake and tsunami on March 11

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In this handout image provided by the U.S. Air Force, members of the Fairfax County, Virginia Task Force 1 Urban Search and Rescue head down a flight of stairs to begin their recovery search March 16, 2011 in Ofunato, Japan



A woman lights a candle during a vigil in remembrance of the victims of the earthquake and tsunami that devastated parts of Japan outside the Japanese embassy in Amman March 20, 2011



Yumi Sugiura (C) and her husband (R), who evacuated from Iitate town in Fukushima, look at a list of detected nuclear radiation levels in various communities at a welfare center in Yamagata, northern Japan March 20, 2011, nine days after the devastating earthquake and tsunami


A man lights a candle during a vigil in remembrance of the victims of the earthquake and tsunami that devastated parts of Japan outside the Japanese embassy in Amman March 20, 2011



A Japanese tsunami survivor gestures as he sit next to his sleeping wife under blankets at a shelter set up in a school of Kesennuma in Miyagi prefecture on March 20, 2011. Workers were close to restoring power to a nuclear plant's overheating reactors as the toll of dead or missing from Japan's worst natural disaster in nearly a century neared 21,000.



People pass a motor boat and cars damaged by last week's earthquake and tsunami in Natori City, Miyagi Prefecture, northeastern Japan March 20, 2011.



Japanese rescue team walk past destroyed houses from the March 11 tsunami and earthquake in the city of Rikuzentakata in Iwate prefecture on March 18, 2011.

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The 9.0-magnitude quake and ensuing 10-metre high tsunami made more than 350,000 people homeless.

Food, water, medicine and fuel are short in some parts, and low temperatures during Japan’s winter are not helping.

While Japanese have been focused on the rescue operation rather than recriminations, media and others have raised questions over the government and plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Company’s (TEPCO) performance.

There have been some suggestions the nuclear drama was taking priority over the human suffering, and that parts of officials’ early response was slow and opaque.

TEPCO head Masataka Shimizu apologised at the weekend for "causing such trouble" at the plant, but has not visited the site or made a public appearance in a week.

COST

Economics Minster Kaoru Yosano put the overall economic damage at above 20 trillion yen ($248 billion).

Japan’s crisis spooked markets last week, prompted rare intervention by the G7 group of rich nations to stabilise the yen, and fuelled concerns the world economy may suffer because of disrupted supplies to the auto and technology industries.

The Fukushima accident has also prompted an international reassessment of nuclear power.

Physicians for Social Responsibility, a U.S. advocacy group, called for a halt to new nuclear reactors in America, and U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu said Japan’s crisis may influence future locations for siting reactors.

Prime Minister Naoto Kan, who has kept a low profile during the crisis except for one shouting outburst at TEPCO, had intended to visit the affected region on Monday, but his trip was cancelled due to bad weather, Jiji news agency said.

The commander of U.S. military forces in the Pacific, Robert Willard, was to meet Japanese officials on Monday to offer support for disaster relief and the nuclear operation.

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If the pumps cannot restart, drastic and lengthy measures may be needed like burying the plant in sand and concrete.

Even if the situation is contained, cases of contaminated vegetables, dust, milk and water are already stoking anxiety despite Japanese officials’ assurances levels are not dangerous.

The government prohibited the sale of raw milk from Fukushima prefecture and spinach from another nearby area. It said more restrictions on food may be announced later on Monday.

The health ministry asked residents of one village about 40 km (25 miles) from the plant to stop drinking tap water after levels of radioactive iodine three times above the regulated limit were found, Kyodo news agency said.

Much smaller traces of radioactive iodine have also been found in Tokyo, 240 km (150 miles) south of the plant.

"The contamination of food and water is a concern," said another IAEA official, Gerhard Proehl.

Some expatriates and local residents have left the capital which is normally home to 13 million people, about a tenth of the population. Those who remain are subdued but not panicked.

"There’s no way I can check if those radioactive particles are in my tap water or the food I eat, so there isn’t much I can really do about it," said Setsuko Kuroi, an 87-year-old woman shopping in a supermarket with a white gauze mask over her face.

AID TRICKLE

Official tolls of dead and missing are rising steadily — to 8,450 and 12,931 respectively on Monday.

They could jump dramatically since police said they believed more than 15,000 people had been killed in Miyagi prefecture, one of four that took the brunt of the tsunami.

Scores of nations have pledged aid to victims, but little is visible in many devastated towns and villages.

"All we have had is the clothes on our backs. But they are good enough. They’ve kept us warm through all of this," said Machiko Kawahata as she, her daughter and granddaughter looked for clothes at a drop-off point in Kamaishi, a coastal town.

"We will make do and we will make it through this."