Japan Death Toll Estimate Rises Over 18,000, Rebuilding May Cost $235 Billion

FUKUSHIMA, Japan — The toll of Japan's triple disaster came into clearer focus Monday after police estimates showed more than 18,000 people died, the World Bank said rebuilding may cost $235 billion and more cases of radiation-tainted vegetables and tap water turned up.

Japanese officials reported progress over the weekend in their battle to gain control over a nuclear complex that began leaking radiation after suffering quake and tsunami damage, though the crisis was far from over, with a dangerous new surge in pressure reported in one of the plant's six reactors.

The announcement by Japan's Health Ministry late Sunday that tests had detected excess amounts of radioactive elements on canola and chrysanthemum greens marked a low moment in a day that had been peppered with bits of positive news: First, a teenager and his grandmother were found alive nine days after being trapped in their earthquake-shattered home. Then, the operator of the overheated nuclear plant said two of the six reactor units were safely cooled down.

"We consider that now we have come to a situation where we are very close to getting the situation under control," Deputy Cabinet Secretary Tetsuro Fukuyama said.

Still, serious problems remained at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear complex. Pressure unexpectedly rose in a third unit's reactor, meaning plant operators may need to deliberately release radioactive steam. That has only added to public anxiety over radiation that began leaking from the plant after a monstrous earthquake and tsunami devastated northeastern Japan on March 11 and left the plant unstable. As day broke Monday, Japan's military resumed dousing of the complex's troubled Unit 4.

The World Bank said in report Monday that Japan may need five years to rebuild from the catastrophic disasters, which caused up to $235 billion in damage, saying the cost to private insurers will be up to $33 billion and that the government will spend $12 billion on reconstruction in the current national budget and much more later.

The safety of food and water was of particular concern. The government halted shipments of spinach from one area and raw milk from another near the nuclear plant after tests found iodine exceeded safety limits. Tokyo's tap water, where iodine turned up Friday, now has cesium. Rain and dust are also tainted.

Early Monday , the Health Ministry advised Iitate, a village of 6,000 people about 30 kilometers (19 miles) northwest of the Fukushima plant, not to drink tap water due to elevated levels of iodine. Ministry spokesman Takayuki Matsuda said iodine three times the normal level was detected there – about one twenty-sixth of the level of a chest X-ray in one liter of water.

In all cases, the government said the radiation levels were too small to pose an immediate health risk.

But Tsugumi Hasegawa was skeptical as she cared for her 4-year-old daughter at a shelter in a gymnasium crammed with 1,400 people about 80 kilometers (50 miles) from the plant.

"I still have no idea what the numbers they are giving about radiation levels mean. It's all so confusing," said Hasegawa, 29, from the small town of Futuba in the shadow of the nuclear complex. "And I wonder if they aren't playing down the dangers to keep us from panicking. I don't know who to trust."

All six of the nuclear complex's reactor units saw trouble after the disasters knocked out cooling systems. In a small advance, the plant's operator declared Units 5 and 6 – the least troublesome – under control after their nuclear fuel storage pools cooled to safe levels. Progress was made to reconnect two other units to the electric grid and in pumping seawater to cool another reactor and replenish it and a sixth reactor's storage pools.

But the buildup in pressure inside the vessel holding Unit 3's reactor presented some danger, forcing officials to consider venting. The tactic produced explosions of radioactive gas during the early days of the crisis.

"Even if certain things go smoothly, there would be twists and turns," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told reporters. "At the moment, we are not so optimistic that there will be a breakthrough."

Growing concerns about radiation add to the overwhelming chain of disasters Japan has struggled with since the 9.0-magnitude quake. The resulting tsunami ravaged the northeastern coast. All told, police estimates show more than about 18,400 died. More than 15,000 deaths are likely in Miyagi, the prefecture that took the full impact of the wave, said a police spokesman.

"It is very distressing as we recover more bodies day by days," said Hitoshi Sugawara, the spokesman.

Police in other parts of the disaster area declined to provide estimates, but confirmed about 3,400 deaths. Nationwide, official figures show the disasters killing more than 8,600 people, and leaving more than 13,200 people missing, but those two lists may have some overlap.

The disasters have displaced another 452,000, who are living in shelters.

Fuel, food and water remain scarce. The government in recent days acknowledged being caught ill-prepared by an enormous disaster that the prime minister has called the worst crisis since World War II.

Bodies are piling up in some of the devastated communities and badly decomposing even amid chilly rain and snow.

"The recent bodies – we can't show them to the families. The faces have been purple, which means they are starting to decompose," says Shuji Horaguchi, a disaster relief official setting up a center to process the dead in Natori, on the outskirts of the tsunami-flattened city of Sendai. "Some we're finding now have been in the water for a long time, they're not in good shape. Crabs and fish have eaten parts."

Contamination of food and water compounds the government's difficulties, heightening the broader public's sense of dread about safety. Consumers in markets snapped up bottled water, shunned spinach from Ibaraki – the prefecture where the tainted spinach was found – and overall expressed concern about food safety.

Experts have said the amounts of iodine detected in milk, spinach and water pose no discernible risks to public health unless consumed in enormous quantities over a long time. Iodine breaks down quickly, after eight days, minimizing its harmfulness, unlike other radioactive isotopes such as cesium-137 or uranium-238, which remain in the environment for decades or longer.

High levels of iodine are linked to thyroid cancer, one of the least deadly cancers if treated. Cesium is a longer-lasting element that affects the whole body and raises cancer risk.

Rain forecast for the Fukushima area also could further localize the contamination, bringing the radiation to the ground closer to the plant.

Edano tried to reassure the public for a second day in a row. "If you eat it once, or twice, or even for several days, it's not just that it's not an immediate threat to health, it's that even in the future it is not a risk," Edano said. "Experts say there is no threat to human health."

No contamination has been reported in Japan's main food export – seafood – worth about $1.6 billion a year and less than 0.3 percent of its total exports.

Amid the anxiety, there were moments of joy on Sunday. An 80-year-old woman and her teenage grandson were rescued from their flattened two-story house after nine days, when the teen pulled himself to the roof and shouted to police for help.

Other survivors enjoyed smaller victories. Kiyoshi Hiratsuka and his family managed to pull his beloved Harley Davidson motorcycle from the rubble in their hometown of Onagawa. The 37-year-old mechanic said he knows it will never work anymore. "But I want to keep it as a memorial."

Japan: Food Fears Grow, Nuclear Plant Cools

(FUKUSHIMA, Japan) — Two units at Japan's stricken nuclear plant safely cooled down Sunday, though pressure unexpectedly rose in a third unit's reactor and traces of radiation was found in more foods, further shaking an already uneasy public.

The pressure increase meant plant operators may need to deliberately release radioactive steam, prolonging a nuclear crisis that has consumed government attention even as it responded to the catastrophic earthquake and tsunami that savaged northeast Japan on March 11.

In a rare rescue after so many days, a teenage boy's cries for help led police to rescue him and an 80-year-old woman at a wrecked house.

Beyond the disaster area, uncertainty grew over the safety of food and water. The government halted shipments of spinach from one area and raw milk from another near the nuclear plant after tests found iodine exceeded safety limits. But the contamination spread to spinach in three other prefectures and to more vegetables — canola and chrysanthemum greens. Tokyo's tap water, where iodine turned up Friday, now has cesium. Rain and dust are tainted too.

In all cases, the government said the radiation levels were too small to pose an immediate risk to health. Still, Taiwan seized a batch of fava beans from Japan found with faint — and legal — amounts of iodine and cesium. "I'm worried, really worried," said Mayumi Mizutani, a 58-year-old Tokyo resident shopping for bottled water at a supermarket to give her visiting 2-year-old grandchild. "We're afraid because it's possible our grandchild could get cancer." Forecasts for rain, she said, were an added worry.

All six of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear complex's reactor units saw trouble after the disasters knocked out cooling systems. In a small advance, the plant's operator declared Units 5 and 6 — the least troublesome — under control after their nuclear fuel storage pools cooled to safe levels. Progress was made to reconnect two other units to the electric grid and in pumping seawater to cool another reactor and replenish it and a sixth reactor's storage pools. But the buildup in pressure inside the vessel holding Unit 3's reactor presented some danger, forcing officials to consider venting. The tactic produced explosions of radioactive gas during the early days of the crisis. "Even if certain things go smoothly there would be twists and turns," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told reporters. "At the moment, we are not so optimistic that there will be a breakthrough."

Nuclear safety officials said one of the options could release a cloud dense with iodine as well as the radioactive elements krypton and xenon. The plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co., temporarily suspended the plans Sunday after it said the pressure inside the reactor stopped climbing, though staying at a high level. "It has stabilized," Tokyo Electric manager Hikaru Kuroda told reporters. Kuroda, who said temperatures inside the reactor reached 572 degrees Fahrenheit (300 degrees Celsius), said the option to release the highly radioactive gas inside is still under consideration if pressure rises.

Growing concerns about radiation add to the overwhelming chain of disasters Japan has struggled with since the 9.0-magnitude quake. The quake spawned a tsunami that ravaged the northeastern coast, killing more than 8,100 people, leaving 12,000 people missing, and displacing another 452,000, who are living in shelters.

Fuel, food and water remain scarce. The government in recent days acknowledged being caught ill-prepared by an enormous disaster that the prime minister has called the worst crisis since World War II.

Bodies are piling up in some of devastated communities and badly decomposing even amid chilly rain and snow. "The recent bodies — we can't show them to the families. The faces have been purple, which means they are starting to decompose," says Shuji Horaguchi, a disaster relief official setting up a center to process bodies in Natori, on the outskirts of Sendai. "Some we're finding now have been in the water for a long time, they're not in good shape. Crabs and fish have eaten parts."

Japan warns on quake deaths rise

Police in Japan say 15,000 people may have been killed in a single prefecture, Miyagi, by the huge quake and tsunami which struck nine days ago.

The official death toll has now risen to 8,450, with 12,931 people missing.

But there was some good news after an 80-year-old woman and her grandson were found alive in the rubble of Ishinomaki city.

Attempts continue to stave off a meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear plant.

Engineers are still working to restore power supplies to the plant's cooling systems, which were knocked out by the tsunami.

But even when they do, there is no guarantee the cooling systems in the plant will work, says the BBC's Rupert Wingfield-Hayes in Toyko.

Experts say that an improvised spraying operation using fire trucks may have to continue for months, our correspondent says.

But officials said conditions in reactor 3 - which has presented engineers with the most serious problems - appeared to have stabilised on Sunday, after they warned earlier that rising pressure might require radioactive steam to be vented.
Homeless

The new figure of a possible 15,000 dead comes from police in the worst-hit Miyagi prefecture, and does not include the thousands more dead and missing in areas to the north and south.

It is looking increasingly clear that the death toll will top 20,000 people at least, our correspondent says.

The disaster dwarfs anything Japan has seen since World War II and people are beginning to talk of the disaster in similar terms, he says.

In a rare story of survival, an elderly woman and a 16-year-old boy, believed to be her grandson, were found alive in a house in Ishinomaki, Miyagi prefecture, nine days after the quake, said Japanese media and police.

Sumi and Jin Abe were trapped when their home collapsed in the quake but were able to get food from the refrigerator. They are both being treated in hospital.

The authorities have begun building temporary homes for some of the hundreds of thousands of people - including an estimated 100,000 children - still sheltering at emergency evacuation centres.

Many survivors have been enduring freezing temperatures without water, electricity, fuel or enough food.

The destruction of the mobile phone network means people are queuing for hours to make their allocated phone call of one minute.

And crippling fuel shortages mean long queues at some petrol stations.

Meanwhile, at the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant, firefighters have continued to spray water at the dangerously overheated reactors and fuel rods, in a desperate attempt to avert a meltdown.

Engineers hope that restoring power will allow them to restart pumps to continue the cooling process, and have attached power lines to reactors 1 and 2, but it is unclear when they will attempt to turn the power back on.

Kyodo news agency quoted Tokyo Electric Power Co as saying that previously overheated spent-fuel storage pools at reactors 5 and 6 had been cooled by Sunday morning.

On Friday officials raised the alert level at the plant from four to five on a seven-point international scale of atomic incidents.

The crisis, previously rated as a local problem, is now regarded as having "wider consequences".

It has highlighted the debate about the safety of nuclear power generation.

Some 2,000 anti-nuclear protesters took to the streets in the Taiwanese capital Taipei to protest against the construction of the island's fourth nuclear power plant, and anti-nuclear banners were also visible on an annual anti-war demonstration in Tokyo on Sunday.
Food ban mulled

Radiation levels have risen in the capital Tokyo, 240km (150 miles) to the south, but officials say the levels recorded are not harmful.

Radioactive contamination has been found in some food products from the Fukushima prefecture, Japanese officials say.

The iodine was found in milk and spinach tested between 16 and 18 March and could be harmful to human health if ingested, the officials said.

International nuclear experts at the IAEA say that, although radioactive iodine has a short half-life of about eight days, there is a short-term risk to human health if it is ingested, and it can cause damage to the thyroid.

On Sunday, chief cabinet secretary Yukio Edano said the government would decide by Monday whether to restrict consumption and shipments of food products from the area in the vicinity of the Fukushima plant.

But Reuters reported the health ministry had already prohibited the sale of raw milk from Fukushima prefecture.

Traces of radioactive iodine have also been found in tap water in Tokyo and five other prefectures, officials said on Saturday.

The traces are within government safety limits, but tests usually show no iodine.

Meanwhile, radiation has been detected for the first time in Japanese exports, with Taiwanese officials finding contamination in a batch of fava beans, although they say the amount is too small to be dangerous to humans.

A Nuclear Meltdown Survivor Story

NEW YORK – A Nuclear Meltdown Survivor StoryRon Fountain knows what the Japanese nuke plant workers are going through. He’s been there. Fountain talks to Tony Dokoupil about how he escaped the Three Mile Island disaster alive.

As dawn broke over Sun City, Arizona, Ron Fountain leaned forward in his favorite chair and prayed for men he’d never met. He was watching televised coverage of the disaster at Fukushima Daiichi, one of Japan’s tsunami-stricken nuclear plants. He had no idea of the identity of the 50 employees risking their lives trying desperately to stave off a complete meltdown. But the 72-year-old Fountain felt a personal connection to the men. After all, he had once been in their shoes.

Thirty-two years ago this month, the world’s first nuclear nightmare unfolded on a spit of land in Pennsylvania’s Susquehanna River. Unlike Japan’s crisis, America’s Three Mile Island meltdown was a manmade event, the result of machine malfunctions and human errors that nearly uncorked doom. But the resulting challenge—to cool exposed fuel rods that otherwise bleed radiation—was the same, and so was the heroic response: dozens of engineers and plant operators toiling around the clock at enormous personal risk to quell a raging reactor. Fountain was among them. Now, after years of carefully tamping down his memories, he is recounting his tale nationally for the first time, his remarks tinged with fear for his Japanese counterparts. “My heart goes out to them,” he says, “because I know those guys are going to stay until the very end.”

Ironically, Fountain found his way to the Three Mile Island plant in search of a less-stressful job. He was working as a supervisor at Luden’s, the lozenge maker, but the deadlines and quotas of a management post put a strain on his heart. So the 40-year-old father of four took a job pushing a broom at TMI in 1976. “I was a janitor,” he says. A few years later, with his ticker in better health and his mind assured that nuclear power was safe, he retrained as a plant operator. “I wasn’t thinking about meltdowns or core damage,” he tells Newsweek. That all changed on the morning of March 28, 1979.

In the evening hours beforehand, Fountain had worked a normal shift in the bowels of the just-opened facility. He clocked out as usual at 11 p.m., went home and fell asleep. But it wasn’t long before his wife shook him awake. Something was wrong at the plant, she said. Someone from the control room called—Fountain needed to report. No explanation was offered and Fountain did not ask for one. “I’ll be right there,” he said, throwing on jeans and a flannel shirt.

“We had to save the plant,” Fountain says. “We didn’t think about saving our own lives.”

Designed as a radiation-proof bunker, the control room was encased in concrete, steel, and bulletproof glass, and it usually held about four men who monitored the horseshoe-shaped instrument panels. When Fountain arrived, however, about 10 people were crammed inside, all of them wearing respirators. A general emergency alarm wailed, hundreds of warning lights flashed and the radiation meters showed a maximum reading. Someone tossed Fountain a respirator, too. “What the heck?” he responded. He had never worn one.

The workers had lost the means to cool the reactor, and the plant’s exposed uranium core had overheated, partially melting into a glassy orb and spewing radiation into the atmosphere. Pregnant women and small children were told to evacuate from the surrounding area, which saw a total exodus of around 140,000 souls, including Fountain’s own family. Now the crew needed to get water into the reactor to stymie a total meltdown—the same challenge facing Japanese nuclear workers, whose total numbers have now surged past 300. At least one worker has been hospitalized, according to the national Yomiuri newspaper.

Fountain knew the guts of the TMI facility as well as anyone, and after hours of others button-pushing in the control room, the team turned to him to unlock an obscure feed line for water. Asked later by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission why he agreed to enter an area with radiation readings off the charts, he said he didn’t consider it; none of the workers did. “We had to save the plant,” he says. “We didn’t think about saving our own lives.” It proved to be an almost fatal reaction. Once outside the control room, Fountain hyperventilated and nearly lost consciousness. He slumped against the wall of a pitch-black, pipe-lined hallway, no more than 30 feet from the valve he needed, sobbing, and asking God for help. “I wasn’t a real prayer warrior at that time,” he concedes, although he has since become one. When he finally opened the valve, he says, the team was able to cool the core for the first time since the crisis began.

Fountain was too “crapped up” to return to the control room for any commiseration. So he took a decontamination shower alone, clothes on, and then drove home through empty streets to his empty house. He gardened to calm himself. In the months to come, he would be diagnosed with a stress condition, and given relaxation tapes with the sound of rain. Other workers coped less effectively, turning on friends and family. All around the neighborhood, marriages exploded, men came undone, and careers disintegrated. A few years later, Fountain moved to Arizona, where he worked for 15 years in quality assurance at the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station.

For similar sacrifices, the Fukushima 50 have already been dubbed “suicide workers” and “modern-day samurai.” They have been feted via Twitter and fawned over by the Japanese media. But to Fountain, the workers are merely exemplary members of the nuclear priesthood, a global cadre of men, and some women, who live by a code of self-sacrifice that means staying even when the alarms say go. “This job has its hazards,” he says, noting that within three months of the Chernobyl meltdown nearly 30 first responders had died. “That’s just the way it is.”

Markets second guessing how the aftershock from Japan will play out

How should an economist react to a catastrophe such as Japan? Even thinking about the financial and commercial impact of the country's most serious earthquake since seismological records began can appear callous – given the scale of the human suffering.

The official death toll, as it climbs up grimly, is now above 7,000. The eventual total is likely to be three times bigger. The impact on those left behind – families, work colleagues – is unthinkable. And words can't describe the courage of the engineers at the Fukushima nuclear power station, as they battle to prevent more fall-out, exposing themselves to surely fatal doses of radiation.

These human tragedies aside, though, Japan is a place of cardinal economic importance. Last year, total GDP was $5,300bn, according to the International Monetary Fund. So we're talking about the world's third largest economy, after America and China - some 60pc bigger than Germany, Europe's commercial power house.

Japan is also among the world's most important creditors - not least to the governments of some ailing Western nations. So while the tsunamis didn't reach Europe, and the West should mercifully be spared any radiation, there could be a world-wide financial aftershock from Japan's worst ever peace-time disaster.

Not so long ago, the Japanese economy, while not yet fully escaped from its long-term malaise, was in relatively good shape. During the third quarter of 2010, GDP grew by a buoyant annualized 3.9pc, with consumption leading the charge. This was unusual for Japan, given the population's neurotic savings habit - a reluctance to spend which has contributed mightily in recent years to keeping this once-dynamic economy locked in a deflationary spiral.

During the middle of last year, though, consumption temporarily boomed, in turn boosting investment. One reason was that many Japanese punters bought fuel-efficient cars ahead of the expiration of a popular government subsidy programme.

Then, towards the end of 2010, growth collapsed. During the fourth quarter, in fact, the economy shrank 0.3pc, as consumption dipped once more. So this earthquake, and related tsunamis, have hit Japan at a time when it's already down.

The destruction of Japanese homes, commercial buildings and infrastructure is, of course, an enormous blow to the country. While shocking, though, such damage has no direct impact on GDP – because this measures economic activity, rather than the capital stock.

Having said that, the disruption to commercial life caused by this disaster will have a major, and immediate GDP impact. That's why, unfortunately, it seems to me that Japan is likely to endure a further economic contraction between April and June, tipping it back officially into recession.

The four parts of Japan most affected – Fukushima, Iwate, Miyagi and Ibaraki – together account for around 6.5pc of GDP, according to official statements. Across these regions, factories have been closed, as inspectors check for damage. Much of the local workforce, as well as being traumatized, are now homeless – effectively, economic refugees. Normal commercial life in these areas has largely ground to a halt and won't return to normal for months and possibly years.

In addition, Japan is at the start of what is likely to be a prolonged power shortage. The country has more than 50 nuclear reactors, which produce 30pc of its electricity. While the numbers aren't clear, informed sources say around a third of these facilities, right across the country, have now been shut for inspection. So, Japan has a gaping electricity deficit – which will also undermine economic activity, even in areas well away from the blighted North Eastern regions.

These are the negatives – and although they will take time to put right, they are temporary. The positive point for Japan, if anything positive can be taken from the cataclysmic events of March 11th, is that the reconstruction effort, while adding to recorded GDP, could also serve to get the economy moving in a more profound sense, countering the country's long-entrenched deflationary mind-set. There is a good chance, in my view, that this could happen.

Having spent some time in Japan, I am not surprised to see the current stoicism with which the country is enduring its ghastly predicament, and the extent to which communities appear to be pulling together. The reconstruction effort, when it engages, as it will, is likely to be executed with the requisite skill and determination which propelled Japan, in just a few short post-War decades, from a relatively small Pacific economy into a world-beating commercial powerhouse.

So, after dipping for a few quarters, Japanese GDP could, eventually surge. Only time will tell – but, in my view, medium-term investors bet against Japan at their peril. In the here and now, though, the forthcoming slowdown could be sizeable. If the regions directly affected lose, say, a third of their economic activity in 2011, that amounts to an annual GDP drop of 2pc or more.

Beyond Japan, there is much talk of the country's importance in the global supply chain. Westerners have now also noticed that Japan's biggest trading partner is no longer the US, but China. The People's Republic has lately been making a big contribution to the nascent global recovery. So there are fears that a recession-bound Japan could impact an already slowing Chinese economy, casting a pall over broader global growth.

The real economic danger, though, isn't the impact of this catastrophe on world-wide commercial activity, but on global investor sentiment. Japanese stocks fell over 10pc last week. The Nikkei 225 share index suffered its biggest two-day fall since the game-changing 1987 crash.

It was the 1995 Kobe earthquake which led indirectly to the collapse of Barings, as "rogue trader" Nick Leeson upped his bets on Japan to avoid discovery of his growing losses. Some investors will no doubt see this disaster, and the "unknown unknowns" which may result, hard on the heels of Arab unrest and rocketing oil prices, as one uncertainty too many.

That's why some big economies, including the US and the UK, are now jointly intervening to weaken the yen. Just as in 1995, this latest Japanese earthquake has caused its currency to surge. That may sound strange, given that the country's productive capacity has been hit. But the yen has just climbed to post-war high against the dollar, as markets foresee cash repatriation following big sales of Japanese assets overseas, not least by insurers, to pay for reconstruction.

Japan has sovereign debts equal to 200pc of GDP. But 95pc of those IOUs are held by Japanese institutions and households. In terms of its balance sheet with the rest of the world, Japan is a huge creditor.

And therein lies the rub. During the immediate aftermath of this earthquake, global financial markets followed their well-rehearsed "emergency drill", which led to the usual net buying of "safe haven" assets like US Treasuries. A realization is now dawning, though, that if Japan starts cashing in some of its vast $980bn stock of American government debt, the market for Treasuries could take a serious hit, causing the US government's borrowing costs to escalate, together with those of other Western nations.

Traders estimate that more than $25bn has been spent in recent days by the G7 economies, reportedly to bring down the yen, and help Japan's recovery effort. The Japanese people are no doubt grateful.

The fact that this is G7 currency initiative, though, a body that doesn't include China and the world's other large net creditors, won't be lost on the Japanese authorities. They will be well aware, as should we be, that this currency intervention is driven almost entirely by Western financial self-interest.

Some progress seen in Japan's nuclear crisis

FUKUSHIMA, Japan – Japanese officials reported progress Sunday in their battle to gain control over a leaking, tsunami-stricken nuclear complex, though the crisis was far from over, with the discovery of more radiation-tainted vegetables and tap water adding to public fears about contaminated food and drink.

The announcement by Japan's Health Ministry late Sunday that tests had detected excess amounts of radioactive elements on canola and chrysanthemum greens marked a low moment in a day that had been peppered with bits of positive news: First, a teenager and his grandmother were found alive nine days after being trapped in their earthquake-shattered home. Then, the operator of the overheated nuclear plant said two of the six reactor units were safely cooled down.

"We consider that now we have come to a situation where we are very close to getting the situation under control," Deputy Cabinet Secretary Tetsuro Fukuyama said.

Still, serious problems remained at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear complex. Pressure unexpectedly rose in a third unit's reactor, meaning plant operators may need to deliberately release radioactive steam. That has only added to public anxiety over radiation that began leaking from the plant after a monstrous earthquake and tsunami devastated northeastern Japan on March 11 and left the plant unstable.

The safety of food and water was of particular concern. The government halted shipments of spinach from one area and raw milk from another near the nuclear plant after tests found iodine exceeded safety limits. But the contamination spread to spinach in three other prefectures and to more vegetables — canola and chrysanthemum greens. Tokyo's tap water, where iodine turned up Friday, now has cesium. Rain and dust are also tainted.

The Health Ministry also advised Iitate, a village of 6,000 people about 30 kilometers (19 miles) northwest of the Fukushima plant, not to drink tap water due to elevated levels of iodine. Ministry spokesman Takayuki Matsuda said iodine three times the normal level was detected there — about one twenty-sixth of the level of a chest X-ray.

In all cases, the government said the radiation levels were too small to pose an immediate health risk. But Taiwan seized a batch of fava beans from Japan found with faint — and legal — amounts of iodine and cesium.

"I'm worried, really worried," said Mayumi Mizutani, a 58-year-old Tokyo resident shopping for bottled water at a supermarket to give her visiting 2-year-old grandchild. "We're afraid because it's possible our grandchild could get cancer." Forecasts for rain, she said, were also a cause for concern.

All six of the nuclear complex's reactor units saw trouble after the disasters knocked out cooling systems. In a small advance, the plant's operator declared Units 5 and 6 — the least troublesome — under control after their nuclear fuel storage pools cooled to safe levels. Progress was made to reconnect two other units to the electric grid and in pumping seawater to cool another reactor and replenish it and a sixth reactor's storage pools.

But the buildup in pressure inside the vessel holding Unit 3's reactor presented some danger, forcing officials to consider venting. The tactic produced explosions of radioactive gas during the early days of the crisis.

"Even if certain things go smoothly, there would be twists and turns," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told reporters. "At the moment, we are not so optimistic that there will be a breakthrough."

Nuclear safety officials said one of the options could release a cloud dense with iodine as well as the radioactive elements krypton and xenon.

The plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co., temporarily suspended the plans Sunday after it said the pressure inside the reactor stopped climbing, though staying at a high level.

"It has stabilized," Tokyo Electric manager Hikaru Kuroda told reporters.

Kuroda, who said temperatures inside the reactor reached 572 degrees Fahrenheit (300 degrees Celsius), said the option to release the highly radioactive gas inside is still under consideration if pressure rises.

Growing concerns about radiation add to the overwhelming chain of disasters Japan has struggled with since the 9.0-magnitude quake. It spawned a tsunami that ravaged the northeastern coast, killing 8,450 people, leaving more than 12,900 people missing, and displacing another 452,000, who are living in shelters.

Fuel, food and water remain scarce. The government in recent days acknowledged being caught ill-prepared by an enormous disaster that the prime minister has called the worst crisis since World War II.

Bodies are piling up in some of the devastated communities and badly decomposing even amid chilly rain and snow.

"The recent bodies — we can't show them to the families. The faces have been purple, which means they are starting to decompose," says Shuji Horaguchi, a disaster relief official setting up a center to process the dead in Natori, on the outskirts of the tsunami-flattened city of Sendai. "Some we're finding now have been in the water for a long time, they're not in good shape. Crabs and fish have eaten parts."

Before the disasters, safety drills were seldom if ever practiced and information about radiation exposure rarely given in Futuba, a small town in the shadow of the nuclear plant, said 29-year-old Tsugumi Hasegawa. She is living in a shelter with her 4-year-old daughter and feeling bewildered.

"I still have no idea what the numbers they are giving about radiation levels mean. It's all so confusing. And I wonder if they aren't playing down the dangers to keep us from panicking. I don't know who to trust," said Hasegawa, crammed with 1,400 people into a gymnasium on the outskirts of the city of Fukushima, 80 miles (50 miles) away from the plant.

Another nuclear safety official acknowledged that the government only belatedly realized the need to give potassium iodide to those living within 12 miles (20 kilometers) of the nuclear complex.

The pills help reduce chances of thyroid cancer, one of the diseases that may develop from radiation exposure, by preventing the body from absorbing radioactive iodine. The official, Kazuma Yokota, said the explosion that occurred while venting the plant's Unit 3 reactor a week ago should have triggered the distribution. But the order came only three days later.

"We should have made this decision and announced it sooner," Yokota told reporters at the emergency command center in Fukushima. "It is true that we had not foreseen a disaster of these proportions. We had not practiced or trained for something this bad. We must admit that we were not fully prepared."

The higher reactor pressure may have been caused by a tactic meant to reduce temperatures — the pumping of seawater into the vessel, said Kuroda, the Tokyo Electric manager.

Using seawater to cool the reactors and storage pools was a desperate measure adopted early last week; Unit 4's pool was sprayed again Sunday and a system to inject water into Unit 2's reactor was repaired. Experts have said for days that seawater would inevitably corrode and ruin the reactors and other finely milled machine parts, effectively turning the plant into scrap.

Edano, the government spokesman, recognized the inevitable Sunday: "It is obviously clear that Fukushima Dai-ichi in no way will be in a condition to be restarted."

Contamination of food and water compounds the government's difficulties, heightening the broader public's sense of dread about safety. Consumers in markets snapped up bottled water, shunned spinach from Ibaraki — the prefecture where the tainted spinach was found — and overall expressed concern about food safety.

Experts have said the amounts of iodine detected in milk, spinach and water pose no discernible risks to public health unless consumed in enormous quantities over a long time. Iodine breaks down quickly, after eight days, minimizing its harmfulness, unlike other radioactive isotopes such as cesium-137 or uranium-238, which remain in the environment for decades or longer.

High levels of iodine are linked to thyroid cancer, one of the least deadly cancers if treated. Cesium is a longer-lasting element that affects the whole body and raises cancer risk.

Rain forecast for the Fukushima area also could further localize the contamination, bringing the radiation to the ground closer to the plant.

Edano tried to reassure the public for a second day in a row. "If you eat it once, or twice, or even for several days, it's not just that it's not an immediate threat to health, it's that even in the future it is not a risk," Edano said. "Experts say there is no threat to human health."

No contamination has been reported in Japan's main food export — seafood — worth about $1.6 billion a year and less than 0.3 percent of its total exports.

Amid the anxiety, there were moments of joy on Sunday. An 80-year-old woman and her teenage grandson were rescued from their flattened two-story house after nine days, when the teen pulled himself to the roof and shouted to police for help.

Other survivors enjoyed smaller victories. Kiyoshi Hiratsuka and his family managed to pull his beloved Harley Davidson motorcycle from the rubble in their hometown of Onagawa.

"I almost gave up the search but it happened that I found it," the 37-year-old mechanic said. "I know that the motorbike would not work anymore, but I want to keep it as a memorial."

Radiation discovery fans food fears in Japan

TOKYO – At a bustling Tokyo supermarket Sunday, wary shoppers avoided one particular bin of spinach.

The produce came from Ibaraki prefecture in the northeast, where radiation was found in spinach grown up to 75 miles (120 kilometers) from the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant. Another bin of spinach — labeled as being from Chiba prefecture, west of Tokyo — was sold out.

"It's a little hard to say this, but I won't buy vegetables from Fukushima and that area," said shopper Yukihiro Sato, 75.

From corner stores to Tokyo's vast Tsukiji fish market, Japanese shoppers picked groceries with care Sunday after the discovery of contamination in spinach and milk fanned fears about the safety of this crowded country's food supply.

The anxiety added to the spreading impact of the unfolding nuclear crisis triggered when the March 11 tsunami battered the Fukushima complex, wrecking its cooling system and leading to the release of radioactive material.

On Sunday, the government banned shipments of milk from one area and spinach from another and said it found contamination on two more vegetables — canola and chrysanthemum greens — and in three more prefectures.

There were no signs Sunday of the panic buying that stripped Tokyo supermarkets of food last week. Instead, shoppers scrutinized the source of items and tried to avoid what they worried might be tainted.

Mayumi Mizutani was shopping for bottled water, saying she was worried about the health of her visiting 2-year-old grandchild after a tiny amount of radioactive iodine was found in Tokyo's tap water. She expressed fears that the toddler could possibly get cancer.

"That's why I'm going to use this water as much as possible," she said.

The government said the level of radiation detected on spinach and milk was minuscule and should be no threat to health. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said he had received no reports that would require special measures to be taken regarding tap water.

Tainted milk was found 20 miles (30 kilometers) from the plant on Saturday, a local official said. Spinach was collected from six farms between 60 miles (100 kilometers) and 75 miles (120 kilometers) to the south of the reactors.

On Sunday, authorities found contamination at additional farms in Fukushima and on vegetables in Chiba, Gunma and Tochigi prefectures, said Yoshifumi Kaji, director of the health ministry's inspection and safety division. He said it was possible some tainted foods already have been sold.

Authorities expect to decide by Tuesday on a comprehensive plan to limit food shipments from affected areas, Kaji said at a news conference.

Farmers and merchants expressed fears of their own that public anxiety might hurt even producers of goods that were free of contamination.

"There will probably be damaging rumors," said farmer Shizuko Kohata, 60, who was evacuated from the town of Futaba, near the Fukushima complex, to a sports arena in Saitama, north of Tokyo.

"I grow things and I'm worried about whether I can make it in the future," Kohata said Saturday.

Chiyoko Kaizuka, who with family members farms spinach, broccoli, onions, rice and other crops on 20 hectares (49 acres) in Ibaraki prefecture northeast of Tokyo, said the combination of earthquakes and fears of radiation have her on edge.

"I don't know what effect the radiation will have, but it's impossible to farm," the 83-year-old Kaizuka said Sunday as she stood along a row of fresh, unpicked spinach that was ready to go but now can't be shipped.

On Sunday, an official of Taiwan's Atomic Energy Council said radiation was detected on fava beans imported from Japan, although in an amount that was too low to harm human health. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to deal with the press.

Japan's food exports are worth about $3.3 billion a year — less than 0.5 percent of its total exports — and seafood makes up 45 percent of that, according to government data.

Experts at the World Health Organization and Food and Agriculture Organization were working Sunday to gather more facts to assess the situation, but an FAO spokesman in Rome said that the picture was not yet clear enough for them to release any specific recommendations.

However, the agencies praised the Japanese government for taking steps to test foods and monitor exports for radiation contamination.

In Tokyo, others said they weren't concerned and put the crisis in perspective with other calamities.

"I experienced the war, so if there is enough food for a day or two, I feel we can get by," said Nagako Mizuno, 73, originally from Iwaki, a city in the quake zone, but has lived in Tokyo for 40 years.

"You can't go on living if you worry about it," she said. "It's all the same if everybody ends up dying. I'm not concerned."

Fears of radioactive contamination hurt sales at the Tsukiji market, a vast maze of aisles where merchants at hundreds of stalls sell tuna, octopus and other fish fresh off the boat. The market was unusually quiet over the weekend, a time when it is normally packed with shoppers and tourists.

Traders have been hit hard by power cuts and an exodus of foreigners, and they worry about long-term damage from public fears over possible contamination of fish stocks.

"The impact would last long, like a decade, because people would not eat fish," said merchant Mamoru Saito, 72.

The market had plenty of fresh fish despite the destruction of much of Japan's northeastern fishing fleet in the tsunami. Whole fish and shellfish were laid out on wooden tables washed by a flow of cold water. Fishmongers sawed slabs of frozen tuna into steaks.

At a restaurant adjacent to the market, sushi chef Hideo Ishigami said the nuclear scare and transportation disruptions due to power cuts have cost him business.

"I have a massive drop in the number of customers," said Ishigami, 72.