Crisis in Japan: One Week On
Following are main developments after a massive earthquake and tsunami devastated northeast Japan and crippled a nuclear power station, raising the risk of uncontrolled radiation.
• Official death toll from earthquake and tsunami 8,450 with 12,931 missing. Police say more than 15,000 feared dead in Miyagi prefecture alone.
• IAEA says some positive developments but overall situation remains very serious.
• Japan's nuclear safety agency says it sees risk of radioactive dust being inhaled by workers at stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, but there are no signs that has happened yet.
• Reactors at the Daiichi nuclear power plant are showing some improvement but the situation remains uncertain, Tetsuro Fukuyama, Japan's deputy chief cabinet secretary, says.
• Nuclear safety agency says pressure is rising in the most damaged No. 3 reactor and workers there are considering whether to release pressure by venting. It says it does not believe much water from the Nos. 3 and 4 reactors is seeping underground.
• Engineers have re-established power cables to the Nos. 1, 5 and 6 reactors, and plan to start testing systems soon. Electricity restored at No. 2 reactor.
• If engineers are unable to cool the reactor, the last option would be entombing the plant with concrete and sand to prevent a catastrophic radiation leak, the method used at Chernobyl in Ukraine in 1986.
• Large supplementary budgets are needed by June to help with reconstruction, senior ruling party lawmaker Jun Azumi says.
• Tests detect radiation above the national safety level in spinach and milk produced near the Fukushima plant. A sample of tap water from Tokyo shows a tiny level of radioactive.
• The health ministry said that radiation levels exceeded safety standards in Fukushima and nearby Ibaraki prefecture. It said it had prohibited the sale of raw milk from Fukushima prefecture.
• Japan's health ministry has urged some residents near the stricken nuclear plant to refrain from drinking tap water after high levels of radioactive iodine were detected, Kyodo news agency says.
• IAEA says food contamination is "a very localized phenomenon at the moment as far as we know" and that food produced in other countries had not been affected.
• Light northwesterly winds and rains are forecast for the area around quake-stricken nuclear reactors on the northeast coast of Japan, the weather agency said on Monday. Wind expected to change to change to light southeasterlies towards Tuesday.
• The earthquake and tsunami will depress growth briefly before reconstruction kicks off and gives the beleaguered economy a boost, the World Bank says in a report.
