Battle to cool Japan plant as food jitters grow

Battle to cool Japan plant as food jitters grow

KITAKAMI, Japan – Engineers racing to cool a stricken nuclear plant in Japan partially restored power to a control room on Tuesday, as radioactivity in more foodstuffs fuelled anxiety over product safety.

An external electricity supply has now been linked up to all six reactors at the Fukushima No. 1 power station, more than a week after a 14-metre (46-foot) tsunami crippled the ageing facility.

In another small step towards regaining control of the plant, the lights came back on in the control centre of the number three reactor, making it easier for workers toiling to get the vital cooling systems working again.

"As of 10:43 pm (1343 GMT), the control centre for reactor number three had its lighting on," an official from plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) told reporters late Tuesday.

The number three reactor is a particular concern because it contains a potentially volatile mixture of uranium and plutonium.

The twin quake and tsunami disaster, Japan's worst crisis since World War II, has left nearly 23,000 people dead or missing, with entire communities along the northeast coast swept away.

Now the shell-shocked nation faces an invisible threat from radiation seeping from the Fukushima plant, which lies just 250 kilometres (155 miles) from the greater Tokyo area and its 30 million inhabitants.

The health ministry advised residents in five towns or cities in Fukushima prefecture not to use tap water to make formula milk and other drinks for babies due to abnormally high radiation levels.

The government also ordered increased inspections of seafood after radioactive elements were detected in the Pacific Ocean near the Fukushima plant.

At one spot eight kilometres from the troubled plant, radioactive iodine 80 times the normal level was found.