TOKYO – After a massive earthquake and tsunami devastated northeast Japan and crippled a nuclear power station, the risk of uncontrolled radiation is very high.
Many shops in Tokyo have run out of bottled water after radiation from a damaged nuclear plant makes tap water unsafe for babies.
Chiba prefecture, adjacent to the capital, has detected radioactive substances in its water purification system in amounts above what is considered safe for infants.
Singapore and Australia join the United States and Hong Kong in restricting food and milk imports from the zone around the crippled nuclear power plant.
Some merchant vessels may be avoiding Tokyo port due to concerns that crew members may be exposed to radiation, a shipping industry official says.
About 300 engineers, struggling to regain control of nuclear plant, resume work on at the No.3 reactor, considered the most critical, after a one-day suspension when black smoke was seen rising.
Estimated cost of damage from the earthquake and tsunami to top $300 million, making it the world’s costliest natural disaster. The 1995 Kobe quake cost $100 billion while Hurricane Katrina caused $81 billion in damage.
The U.N. Atomic agency says the situation at the damaged nuclear plant remains of serious concern though Japan has told it the radiation levels there are declining.
U.S. top nuclear regulator votes to conduct a safety review of the country’s nuclear reactors in response to the crisis in Japan.
Govt says there is no need to extend a 20-km (12-mile) evacuation zone around the tsunami-damaged nuclear plant, despite elevated radiation readings outside the area
Official death toll from earthquake and tsunami exceeds 9,000, Kyodo news agency reports national police as saying. More than a quarter of a million people are living in shelters.
World’s costliest natural disaster
