Japan quake costliest ever, radiation in Tokyo water

TOKYO – Japan estimated the cost of the damage from its devastating earthquake and tsunami could top $300 billion as authorities in Tokyo warned that babies should not be given tap water because of radiation from a crippled nuclear plant. The first official estimate since the March 11 disaster covers damage to roads, homes, factories and infrastructure, and dwarfs losses from both the 1995 Kobe quake and Hurricane Katrina that swept through New Orleans in 2005, making it the world’s costliest natural disaster. As concern grew over the risk to food safety of radiation from the damaged Fukushima power plant, 250 km (150 miles) north of the Japanese capital, the United States became the first nation to block some food imports from the disaster zone. The plant, battered by a 9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami that has left 23,000 people dead or missing, has still not been brought under control, and workers were forced away from the complex when black smoke began rising from one of its six reactors.
Tokyo authorities said on Wednesday that water at a purification plant for the capital of 13 million people had 210 becquerels of radioactive iodine — more than twice the safety level for infants. Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara, however, said that level posed no immediate risk and water could still be used. “But, for infants under age one, I would like them to refrain from using tap water to dilute baby formula,” he added. The US Food and Drug Administration said it was stopping imports of milk, vegetable and fruit from four prefectures in the vicinity of the stricken nuclear plant. Hong Kong, a major importers of Japanese food, also banned produce and milk imports from the disaster zone. Japan’s Jiji news agency said Hong Kong authorities had found radioactivity levels in spinach and turnip samples up to 10 times over the safety limit.
South Korea may be next to ban Japanese food after the world’s worst atomic crisis since Chernobyl in 1986. France this week asked the European Commission to look into harmonising controls on radioactivity in imports from Japan. Food made up just 0.6 percent of Japan’s total exports last year. Authorities have said above-safety radiation levels had been discovered in 11 types of vegetables from the area, in addition to milk and water, and they have halted shipments of some food and told people there to stop eating leafy vegetables.
Chief cabinet secretary Yukio Edano, who has been the government’s public face during the disaster, urged the world not to overreact.
“We have measures in place that keep products with radiation above a certain level out of circulation. That means anything in circulation is safe. This is not necessarily well understood by other countries,” he told a news conference. Edano also said an exclusion zone around the plant did not need to be expanded and he urged Tokyo residents not to hoard bottled water. But his plea fell on deaf ears with many shops quickly selling out of supplies. “If this were temporary, I wouldn’t be so worried. If this is a long term, I think we have a lot to worry about,” said Riku Kato, father of a one-year-old baby.
Other Asian neighbours are inspecting imports for contamination and Taiwan advised boats to stop fishing in Japanese waters.
At the Fukushima plant, engineers battling to cool reactors to contain further contamination were evacuated when black smoke rose from the No.3 reactor, the plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) , said. It did not know what caused the smoke.
A government official later told reporters the smoke was not a serious issue.
The Asian nation’s worst crisis since World War Two has sent shock waves through global financial markets.