Japanese authorities advised against allowing infants to drink tap water in Tokyo due to raised radiation levels and the United States became the first nation to block some food imports from Japan .
The crisis at the tsunami-smashed nuclear power plant, 250 km north of the Japanese capital, appeared far from over with workers attempting to gain control ordered to leave the site after black smoke began rising from one of its six reactors.
The plant was crippled by a 9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami on March 11. Some 23,000 people have been left dead or missing.
Tokyo authorities said water at a purification plant for the capital of 13 mln people had 210 becquerels of radioactive iodine — more than twice the safety level for infants.
"This is without doubt, an effect of the Fukushima Daiichi plant," a Tokyo metropolitan government official said, referring to the nuclear power station.
International concerns about food safety are growing, with the United States the latest to impose controls. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s aid it was stopping imports of milk, vegetable and fruit from four prefectures in the vicinity of the crippled nuclear plant.
South Korea may be next to ban Japanese food after the world's worst atomic crisis since Chernobyl in 1986. France this week asked the European Commission to look into harmonising controls on radioactivity in imports from Japan.
Food made up just 0.6% of Japan's total exports last year.
Authorities said above-safety radiation levels had been discovered in 11 types of vegetables from the area, in addition to milk and water.
Japan has already halted shipment of some food from the area and told people there to stop eating leafy vegetables. Asian neighbours are inspecting imports for contamination, and Taiwan advised boats to stop fishing in Japanese waters.
At the Fukushima plant, engineers are battling to cool reactors to contain further contamination and avert a meltdown.
But they were ordered out on Wednesday when black smoke began rising from the No. 3 reactor, the plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co, said. It said it did not know what was causing the smoke.
The Asian nation's worst crisis since World War Two may have caused $300 bln damage and has sent shock waves through global financial markets.
DRAMA AT FUKUSHIMA
Technicians working inside an evacuation zone around the plant have successfully attached power cables to all six reactors and started a pump at one to cool overheating fuel rods.
As well as having its workers on the front line in highly dangerous circumstances, TEPCO is also facing accusations of a slow disaster response and questions over why it originally stored more uranium at the plant than it was designed to hold.
Vienna-based U.N. watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), expressed concern about a lack of information from Japanese authorities. It cited missing data on temperatures of spent fuel pools at the facility's reactors 1, 3 and 4.
"We continue to see radiation coming from the site … and the question is where exactly is that coming from?" said a senior IAEA official, James Lyons.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he was concerned about radioactive fallout affecting the U.S. 55,000 troops in and around Japan, many involved in a massive relief operation for Washington's close ally. "We're also deeply concerned about the wellbeing of our Japanese allies," he said.
Worsened by widespread ignorance of the technicalities of radiation, public concern is rising around the world and radioactive particles have been found as far away as Iceland.
GLOBAL IMPACT
The Japan crisis has dealt a blow to the nuclear power industry around the world. Italy became the latest nation to re-assess its programme, announcing a one-year moratorium on site selection and building of plants.
Crisis in the world's third-biggest economy — and its key position in global supply chains, especially for the auto and technology sectors — has added to global market jitters, also affected by conflict in Libya and unrest in the Middle East.
Toyota said it would delay the launch in Japan of two additions to the Prius line-up, a wagon and a minivan, from the originally planned end-April due to production disruptions.
The tsunami and earthquake are the world's costliest ever natural disaster, with the government estimating damage at 15-25 trln yen ($185 -308 bln).
The upper end of that range would equate to about 6% of Japan's GDP.
The official death toll has risen to 9,199, but with 13,786 people still reported missing, it is certain to rise.
