Exodus from Tokyo begins
Nuclear radiation fears driving many to flee city
SHIZUOKA, Japan | A quiet exodus from Tokyo began on Tuesday after another explosion and a fire at a nuclear-power plant in Fukushima sent radiation levels above normal in the capital and in other prefectures in the north and east of Japan.
Many fleeing Tokyo residents said they could no longer tolerate tremors jolting them out of bed, four days after the strongest earthquake to hit Japan in recorded history struck Friday, followed by a raging tsunami that may have claimed as many as 10,000 lives.
Many feared that a cloud of nuclear radiation could drift from the plant 170 miles northeast of the capital toward the Kanto Plain, home to about 30 million people in a vast metropolis including Tokyo and Yokohama.
The Tokyo metropolitan government said radiation levels surged to 23 times the normal level Tuesday in the capital.
“The possibility of further radioactive leakage is heightening,” Prime Minister Naoto Kan said in a TV address Tuesday morning. “We are making every effort to prevent the leak from spreading. I know that people are very worried, but I would like to ask you to act calmly.”
BABY MONITOR: A baby is checked for radiation exposure on Tuesday in Nihonmatsu, a city in Fukushima, where another explosion and a fire at a nuclear-power plant sent radiation levels above normal. (Kyodo News via Associated Press)He said radiation spread from the four battered nuclear reactors of the Dai-ichi power plant in Fukushima prefecture, after an explosion in Unit 2 and a fire in Unit 4 on Tuesday.
The fire in a fuel-storage pond, where nuclear rods are cooled, sent radioactive gases into the air. Two workers were missing after the Tuesday blast.
“Radioactivity is being released directly into the atmosphere,” a Japanese official told the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Early Wednesday, another fire broke out at the Dai-ichi Unit 4, according to a spokesman for Tokyo Electric Power Co., elaborating that the new fire was the result of the earlier fire not having been completely extinguished.
Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said later Wednesday morning that the flames had been put out, though smoke was still visible on Japanese TV and video feeds.
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