By Mayumi Negishi and Kazunori Takada
TOKYO, March 25 (Reuters) - Radiation fears escalated in
Japan on Friday after workers suffered burns as they tried to
cool an earthquake-crippled nuclear power station, while the
government sowed confusion over whether it was widening an
evacuation zone around the plant.
Prime Minister Naoto Kan, making his first public statement
on the crisis in a week, said the situation at the Fukushima
nuclear complex north of Tokyo was "nowhere near the point" of
being resolved.
"We are making efforts to prevent it from getting worse, but
I feel we cannot become complacent," he told reporters. "We must
continue to be on our guard."
The comments reflected a spike of unease in Japan after
several days of slow but steady progress in containing the
nuclear accident, which was triggered by a devastating
earthquake and tsunami two weeks ago.
The 9.0 magnitude quake and giant waves it triggered left
more than 10,000 people dead and 17,500 missing.
As shocking as that toll is, much attention since the March
11 disaster has been on the possibility of a catastrophic
meltdown at Fukushima, 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo.
The government prodded tens of thousands of
people living in a 20 km-30 km (12-18 mile) zone beyond the
stricken complex to leave, but insisted it was not widening a 20
km evacuation zone.
China, meanwhile, said two Japanese travellers arriving in
the country were found to have very high levels of radiation.
Three workers trying to cool one of the most critical
reactors at the plant were exposed to radiation levels 10,000
times higher than normal, raising the possibility of a leak of
radioactive material through a crack in the core's container.
That would mean a serious reversal following slow progress
in getting the plant back under control.
The reactor, No. 3 of six, is the only one to use plutonium
in its fuel mix which is more toxic than the uranium used in the
other reactors. The government called for an investigation into
why such high levels of radiation had suddenly appeared.
More than 700 engineers have been working in shifts to
stabilise the plant but they pulled back from some parts when
the workers were hurt on Thursday. Two of the men suffered
radiation burns when contaminated water seeped over their
shoes .
Nuclear agency official Hidehiko Nishiyama said there was a
possibility of damage to the reactor but he later told
reporters: "It could be from venting operations and there could
be some water leakage from pipes or from valves, but there is no
data suggesting a crack."
Hideo Morimoto, director at the Agency for Natural Resources
and Energy, also played down fears.
"I feel if the pressure vessel has been seriously damaged,
then far more radiation would have leaked," he said.
U.N. nuclear watchdog IAEA said a total of 17 workers had
received elevated levels of radiation since the operations
began, but the other 14 did not suffer burns.
Two of the reactors are now seen as safe but the other
four are volatile, occasionally emitting steam and smoke. But
work is advancing to restart water pumps to cool their fuel
rods.
Authorities have been using seawater to cool the
rectors but that is not ideal as it corrosive and leaves salt
deposits that constrict the amount of water that can cool the
rods.
Plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO)
said it started injecting freshwater into the pressure vessels
of reactors No.1 and No.3 and expected to start injecting
freshwater into No. 2 soon.
The United States has offered to help with two barges
with 525,000 gallons (2.0 million litres) of freshwater.
RADIATION IN TRAVELLERS
Chinese authorities said two travellers who arrived in the
eastern city of Wuxi from Tokyo were found to have levels of
radiation that "seriously exceeded the limit" although they
presented no risk to others.
Up to now, no one in Japan except workers at the stricken
plant has been found with seriously elevated radiation levels,
and departing airline passengers are not being screened.
Japan's chief cabinet secretary said 130,000 people living
in an outer circle around Fukushima should consider leaving,
although he insisted it was because of the difficulties
in getting them supplies and was not an evacuation order.
"Given how prolonged the situation has become, we think it
would be desirable for people to voluntarily evacuate," Yukio
Edano said.
Japan cleared about 70,000 people from a 20-km (12-mile)
zone around the plant soon after the earthquake and tsunami.
Edano has maintained there was no need to expand the
evacuation zone, but an official at the Science Ministry
confirmed that daily radiation levels in an area 30 km (18
miles) northwest of the plant had exceeded the annual limit.
FEAR OVER FOOD
Alarm about radiation is spreading at home and beyond.
Vegetable and milk shipments from near the plant have been
stopped, and Tokyo's 13 million residents were told this week
not to give tap water to babies after contamination from rain
put radiation at twice the safety level.
It dropped back to safe levels the next day, and the city
governor cheerily drank tap water in front of cameras.
Experts say radiation from the plant is still generally
below levels of exposure from flights or medical X-rays.
Nevertheless, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Australia, the
United States and Hong Kong are restricting food and milk
imports from the zone. Other nations are screening Japanese
food, and German shipping lines are simply avoiding the country.
In Japan's north, more than a quarter of a million people
are in shelters. Exhausted rescuers are still sifting through
the wreckage of towns and villages, retrieving bodies.
Amid the suffering, though, there was a sense that Japan was
turning the corner. Aid flowed to refugees, and phone,
electricity, postal and bank services have resumed, though the
can still be patchy.
Owners of small businesses have begun cleaning up.
"Everybody on this block has the firm belief that they are
going to bring this thing back again," said Maro Kariya in the
town of Kamaishi, as he cleared debris from a family coffee
shop.
The estimated $300 billion damage makes it the world's
costliest natural disaster. Global financial market jitters over
the crisis have calmed, though supply disruptions are affecting
the automobile and technology sectors.
Foreigner investor buying of Japanese shares actually
reached a record high in the week after the disaster, data
showed, as bargain-hunters jumped in on an initial plunge.
(Additional reporting by Linda Sieg, Chizu Nomiyama, Sumio Ito,
Shinichi Saoshiro and Kiyoshi Takenaka in Tokyo, Yoko Nishikawa,
Jon Herskovitz and Chisa Fujioka in northeast Japan; Writing by
Robert Birsel; Editing by John Chalmers)
The huge 
