Radiation Wind to Hit Tokyo within 10 hours - France

World | March 15, 2011, Tuesday // 07:58|  views

Fearing a shortage of food and worried about the crisis at the Fukushima nuclear facility, people in Tokyo are rushing to supermarkets to stock up on supplies leaving many business running short of essential goods like bread, water, rice. Photo by EPA

The French embassy in the Japanese capital has warned in an advisory that a low level of radioactive wind could reach Tokyo within 10 hours.

In a statement published on its site the embassy said its citizens living near the nuclear reactors should remain at home, with air conditioning switched off and try not to panic.

Radiation levels near the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant soared in the early hours of Tuesday following another explosion at an overheating reactor.

The risk of further releases of radioactive material from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant remains "very high," Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan said Tuesday. In addition to an explosion at the No. 2 reactor, the building housing the No. 4 unit -- which had been shut down before Friday's earthquake -- was burning Tuesday morning, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano announced.

The plant's owners, the Tokyo Electric Power Company, evacuated all but about 50 of their workers from the plant following Tuesday's explosion at the No. 2 reactor.

Radiation levels at the plant have increased to "levels that can impact human health," Edano said -- between 100 and 400 millisieverts, or as much as 160 times higher than the average dose of radiation a typical person receives from natural sources in a year.

Evacuations have already been ordered for anyone living within 20 kilometers (12.5 miles) of the plant, and Edano said anyone between 20 and 30 kilometers (between 12.5-18.6 miles) should remain indoors.

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Tags: nuclear, radiation, Tokyo Electric, TEPCO, tsunami, Earthquake, plant, nuclear power, Japan, Fukushima, Fukushima Daiichi, Tokyo, Japanese

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