Radiation from Japan’s stricken nuclear power plant has contaminated food, milk and tap water, sparking cancer fears among an already anxious people. The government was forced yesterday to ban the sale of spinach from areas near Fukushima after tests revealed that it contained radioactive iodine from the nuclear plant 27 times above safety limits. The contamination has also spread to tap water in Tokyo and to beans, milk and edible chrysanthemums produced near the plant. But there were signs that Japan was finally getting to grips with its nuclear crisis when workers restored electrical power to one of the stricken reactors and brought two atomic waste storage tanks ‘under control’. The world’s worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl in 1986 was triggered when the tsunami disabled diesel generators needed to keep the nuclear reactors cool at the Fukushima Daiichi plant. The site has been hit by four explosions and two fires while radiation has spewed from the crippled buildings for days. Two workers are still missing, while around 300 emergency staff are risking their lives to stop a meltdown and explosion that would scatter dangerous radioactive fallout for miles. They were originally known as the Fukushima Fifty, but it has since emerged that there are many more of them.(Daily Mail)Monday 21 March 2011
Cancer fear as radiation gets in Tokyo's tap water: Anxiety continues even as workers bring Fukushima storage tanks 'under control'
Radiation from Japan’s stricken nuclear power plant has contaminated food, milk and tap water, sparking cancer fears among an already anxious people. The government was forced yesterday to ban the sale of spinach from areas near Fukushima after tests revealed that it contained radioactive iodine from the nuclear plant 27 times above safety limits. The contamination has also spread to tap water in Tokyo and to beans, milk and edible chrysanthemums produced near the plant. But there were signs that Japan was finally getting to grips with its nuclear crisis when workers restored electrical power to one of the stricken reactors and brought two atomic waste storage tanks ‘under control’. The world’s worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl in 1986 was triggered when the tsunami disabled diesel generators needed to keep the nuclear reactors cool at the Fukushima Daiichi plant. The site has been hit by four explosions and two fires while radiation has spewed from the crippled buildings for days. Two workers are still missing, while around 300 emergency staff are risking their lives to stop a meltdown and explosion that would scatter dangerous radioactive fallout for miles. They were originally known as the Fukushima Fifty, but it has since emerged that there are many more of them.(Daily Mail)