Power line connected to Japan reactor

Crews fighting to cool reactors at a stricken Japanese nuclear plant managed to connect a power line yesterday as the government revealed that leaking radioactivity had reached the food chain.

The Fukushima No. 1 plant was crippled eight days ago by a terrifying earthquake and tsunami which, according to the latest police tally, left at least 18,600 dead or missing in Japan’s worst natural disaster since 1923.

More than 7,300 were confirmed killed – lost to the tsunami or buried in the wreckage of buildings. Sick and hungry survivors of the disaster are enduring desperate conditions and bitterly cold nights in the northeast.

The government of the world’s third-biggest economy has been insisting that there is no widespread threat of radiation but confirmed that fresh foodstuffs were now showing signs of contamination.

Tainted milk was found in Fukushima prefecture while contaminated spinach was discovered in neighbouring Ibaraki prefecture, chief government spokesman Yukio Edano told reporters.

The milk was found more than 30 km from the plant, beyond a government exclusion zone.

But Edano urged consumers to remain calm, saying that even if a person were to drink the contaminated milk for a year, the radiation level would be the equivalent of one CT hospital scan.

“The government will do its utmost... to avoid health hazards and to resolve this problem,” he said.

Abnormal levels of radioactive iodine were found in the water supply in Tokyo and several prefectures near the power plant, a science ministry official said.

Traces of radioactive caesium were also found in tap water in Tochigi and Gunma prefectures, but the levels of both elements were well below the legal limit, the official said.

Engineers fighting to restore mains electricity at the overheating reactors connected a power line into the plant 250 km northeast of Tokyo, and said they would continue pumping in seawater round the clock.

After an epic week-long tussle to control overheating at the facility, where the tsunami knocked out backup generators, the crews were expecting to restore electricity to four of its six reactors, officials said.

The nuclear safety agency said workers had connected a power line to reactor number two at the plant after the 9.0-magnitude earthquake – the biggest in Japan’s recorded history – felled electricity pylons in the area.