Radiation Spikes in Sea Near Crippled Japan Nuclear Plant

26 March 2011 VOA News Japan's nuclear safety agency says radiation levels in seawater near the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant have spiked to 1,200 times the legal limit.

Officials say they detected heightened levels of radioactive iodine in Pacific Ocean water within 300 meters of the plant. The nuclear safety agency said one-half of a liter of the water contains the same amount of radiation that a person can safely be exposed to in a year.

Contaminated seawater is the latest indication that radiation from the plant is spreading. Heightened levels of radioactive substances have also been found

this past week in the water supply in Tokyo and nearby areas. Radiation has also been found in vegetables and milk from farms near Fukushima, prompting several countries to ban imports of food from the region.

Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano, the government's main spokesperson on the nuclear disaster, told reporters Saturday it is difficult to predict when the crisis will end.

Workers Saturday started spraying freshwater instead of seawater into the damaged nuclear reactors in an ongoing effort to keep damaged fuel rods from overheating and spewing more radiation into the environment. There was concern that salt in the seawater was clogging pipes and coating the fuel rods, interfering with efforts to restore the plant's cooling systems.

The U.S. Navy is sending ships loaded with freshwater toward the plant on Japan's east coast to help.

Efforts also are under way to drain highly radioactive pools of water that have accumulated in the reactor buildings, after two workers were hospitalized with radiation burns from stepping into a puddle of contaminated water.

Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan said Friday the situation at the plant remains precarious. He thanked emergency workers he says are risking their lives trying to cool the plant.

Japanese authorities have urged residents still living within a 20- to 30-kilometer radius of Fukushima to voluntarily leave the area. Residents within that zone had been told previously to stay indoors to avoid the threat of radiation, while residents closer to the plant were told to evacuate.

Japan's national police agency said Saturday the official death toll from a massive earthquake and tsunami that struck the east coast March 11 has risen to more than 10,400 people, with more than 17,500 others listed as missing. About 300,000 are living in temporary shelters.