Follow the latest events around the Pacific Rim after an 9.0-magnitude earthquake off Japan's coast triggered a devastating tsunami.
The Japanese government has ordered a halt to all shipments of spinach from four prefectures surrounding the country's tsunami-damaged nuclear power plant, and has also banned milk shipments from the site's home province of Fukushima.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano announced the measures at a briefing amid increasing concerns over contamination of some foods and tap water with trace amounts of radioactivity.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano gives a news conference, says that the smoke from the No. 3 reactor has not given risen to any adverse readings.
Akira Abe, father of rescued 16-year-old survivor Jin Abe, checks on his son at the Ishinomaki red Cross hospital in Ishinomaki city in Miyagi prefecture, one day after Jin and Akira's 80-year-old mother Sumi Abe were rescued from a collapsed their house, nine days after a massive earthquake and tsunami.
The story of survival provided welcome good news as the death toll from the March 11 quake-tsunami disaster continued to climb, with the number of confirmed dead and missing topping 21,000. [AFP]
Some workers at Japan's stricken nuclear power plant were evacuated after smoke was seen rising from reactor No. 3, among the most badly damaged at the six-reactor complex, the plant operator said.
The situation at Japan's tsunami-damaged nuclear power plant is improving slowly, Prime Minister Naoto Kan said. (Kyodo news agency)
The situation at Japan's tsunami-damaged nuclear power plant is improving slowly, Prime Minister Naoto Kan said. (Kyodo news agency)
The World Health Organisation said that the detection of radiation in food after an earthquake damaged a Japanese nuclear plant was a more serious problem than it had first expected.
"Quite clearly it's a serious situation," Peter Cordingley, Manila-based spokesman for WHO's regional office for the Western Pacific, told Reuters.
"It's a lot more serious than anybody thought in the early days when we thought that this kind of problem can be limited to 20 to 30 kilometres," he said.
Cases of contaminated vegetables, dust, milk and water are already stoking regional anxieties despite Japanese officials' assurances the levels are not dangerous.
Official from Japan's nuclear safety agency told AFP:
Radiation monitoring will be conducted for seawater. There is a possibility that a very small amount of radiation may flow into the sea. But even if it happens, considering the current radiation level in the air, there will not be an impact on human health.
Japan death toll likely to top 18,000. Progress reported in controlling crisis at stricken nuclear plant as authorities battle fallout of quake and tsunami.
Working in suits sealed by duct tape, engineers have connected power cables to the No. 2, 5 and 6 reactors and plan to start testing systems soon, officials say.
The most badly damaged reactors are No. 3 and 4, which were both hit by explosions last week. If the pumps cannot restart, drastic and lengthy measures may be needed like burying the plant in sand and concrete.
Japan's nuclear safety agency says that power has been restored to No. 5 and No. 6 reactors from the grid.
Pressure is rising in the No.3 reactor and workers there are considering whether to release pressure by "venting", Japan's nuclear safety agency said.
Meanwhile, engineers say they may regain some functions in the control room of reactor No. 2.
The crisis in Japan has led many countries to review their nuclear plans, but not India. The state of Maharastra is still going ahead with plans to build the world's largest nuclear park in Jaitapur, a region along the Konkan coast that already sits atop a known fault line.
The ambitious Indian-French project has not gone down well with those living near the earmarked site. Al Jazeera's Prerna Suri reports from Jaitapur.
Japan's nuclear safety agency said on Monday it acknowledged a risk of radioactive dust being inhaled by workers at the stricken nuclear plant in Fukushima, but had seen no sign yet of that happening.
Japan's power company TEPCO said on Monday it will lay cables to the two remaining reactors at the Fukushima nuclear complex after trucks sprayed water over the other two reactors earlier in the day.
The external power supply will enable the plant operator to restore their systems to monitor radiation and other data, including lighting the control rooms, cooling down the reactors and the spent fuel storage pools.
Japanese PM Naoto Kan cancelled a visit to Miyagi and later to Fukushima prefectures on Monday due to bad weather. He was scheduled to meet survivors of the quake and tsunami before heading to "J Village", a vast football training facility about 20km from the crippled nuclear power plant, which is now being used by emergency response teams.
Japanese health officials have detected higher levels of radioactive materials in the water in Fukushima prefecture and have cautioned villagers against drinking from the tap. They said residents can use the water for washing and bathing, adding that drinking it has no immediate effect on human health.
Spinach with radiation 27 times higher than government safety limit has been found in the city of Hitachi in Ibaraki prefecture, more than 100km south of the damaged Fukushima nuclear plant.
Photo: ReutersThe level of radioactive iodine detected per kilogramme of spinach grown in open air was at 54,000 becquerels, exceeding the permissible level of 2,000 becquerels.
Local authorities said the radiation level do not affect human health. Prefectural governments plan to ask municipalities to voluntarily halt or recall shipment of contaminated products.
Yukio Edano, the Japanese cabinet secretary, on Sunday said the Fukushima nuclear plant may be demolished as it was not clear if the complex can resume operations given the state of the reactors. He added that the government has to go through the required procedures before deciding on the plant's fate.
Japanese defence minister says surface temperatures of all 6 reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has dropped to below 100 degrees Celcius.
Toshimi Kitazawa quoting a nuclear expert said lower temperature confirms the existence of water in the spent fuel rod storage pools. He said Self-Defence Forces officials on Sunday measured the temperatures from a helicopter using an infrared device.
Japanese police say the number of people killed or gone missing has topped 21,000 as of Sunday night, with 8,400 confirmed deaths.
Tsunami survivor Kiyoshi Hiratsuka searched all day for his much beloved Harley Davidson in the ruins of his hometown, Onagawa. The once vibrant fishing town was obliterated when the devastating tsunami that followed the earthquake converted it into a landscape of death and destruction.
Residents say half of the town's 10.000 people are gone.
Digging in the rubble of what was once his home, Hiratsuka eventually found the handlebars of his Harley sticking out from the debris. The 37-year-old mechanic explained his relief to Associated Press news agency at finding the bike, saying he wanted to keep it as a memorial to the losses suffered by Japan.
Check out the latest feature from Japan by Al Jazeera's Dorothy Parvaz - Scenes from Japan's devestated coast line
Radioactivity from the nuclear accident in Fukushima has not contaminated food grown outside Japan, the UN atomic watchdog says. Graham Andrew, a senior official of the IAEA said:
Radioactivity from this emergency - I say on the advice of (UN agencies) FAO and WHO - has not affected food produced in any other country.
The UN atomic watchdog says there have been some positive developments at the disaster-hit nuclear power plant in the last 24 hours but that the overall situation remains very serious.
Graham Andrew, a senior official of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), also says radiation levels in major Japanese cities have not changed and remain below dangerous levels. He says the IAEA can confirm that in some areas near the plant radioactive iodine has been detected in some freshly grown vegetables.
There have been some positive developments in the last 24 hours but overall the situation remains very serious.
Al Jazeera's Harry Fawcett reports from Miyako city, where he follows a doctor's tireless effort to help those in need.
NHK: A Putzmeister with a 50-metre arm will used tomorrow to send water into the reactors at the Fukushima nuclear power plant.
Defence Minister Kitazawa told NHK that the surface temperatures above the reactors of the quake-hit Fukushima nuclear power plant give comfort.
The temperatures are:
Reactor 1 - 58 degrees
Reactor 2 - 35 degrees
Reactor 3 - 62 degrees
Reactor 4 - 42 degrees
Reactor 5 - 24 degrees
Reactor 6 - 25 degrees.
The temperature above the containment vessel itself of Reactor 3 is 128 degrees, but this is not cause for concern, he says.
Several hundred gathered outside Hong Kong's government headquarters earlier today to commemorate Japan's earthquake victims and raise awareness of the dangers of nuclear energy.
Our team in Japan spent some time in Hachinohe today - it's here, in case you were wondering.
It is a small community on the coast, far north, near Hokkaido, where the sea raged in with around 20 minutes of warning and pushed things around, depositing biquitous Boss coffee vending machines in the middle of a forested area, dumping a piano in a ditch, planting a warped antenna with an airplane on top into what used to be a vegetable patch (see photos below).
Our web producer Dorothy Parvaz said:
It was quite something to watch these folks pick up the pieces, one random bit at a time, dust it off and move on.
Fukushima Prefectural Government has asked farmers to refrain from shipping any vegetables until safety is established, NHK, Japan's national broadcaster says.
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