First Published Friday, 25 March 2011 02:19 am - © 2011 Need to Know News
-- Updates With More on Worker Accident In Paragraph 4
TOKYO (MNI) - Work to restart cooling systems at the crisis-hit Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant continued Friday as fears over radiation in food and water spread.
Parts of the crisis-hit nuclear facility remain out of bounds for workers at the plant due to high radiation levels, hindering efforts to restart cooling systems at the plant.
Three workers were exposed to excessive radiation levels in Reactor 3's turbine room on Thursday and two were hospitalized with radiation burns to their legs from standing in radiated water in the room.
Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) officials said Friday that they measured radioactivity levels 10,000 times normal in the water the workers were standing in. The water from the reactor is normally radioactive but the elevated level measured likely means the fuel rods in the reactor have been damaged, said an official with the Japan Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency.
Officials hope to have power hooked up to a pump in Reactor 3 on Saturday, which would allow them to resume its normal cooling water circulation. But targets for resuming power to the pumping system have been pushed back again and again since last Saturday as the roller coaster of news out of the plant continues.
Meanwhile, already nervous Japanese consumers were hit with more worries as excessive levels of radiation were found in a type of leafy vegetable growing near Tokyo.
On Thursday, officials lifted a warning for infants to avoid drinking Tokyo tap water but two other cities -- Sendai and Chiba -- announced excessive radiation levels in their water and advised infants not to drink it.
A long list of vegetables from Fukushima and three other nearby prefectures has been found to contain excessive levels of radiation.
Meanwhile, Japanese television showed white smoke or steam, presumably carrying radiation, still rising from three reactors at the plant Friday morning.
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