The Japan's Nuclear Tragedy

         The Japan's Nuclear Tragedy

Showing the incredible power of the 9.0 magnitude earthquake, the largest to hit tremor-prone Japan since accurate records began in the early 1900s, Oshika peninsula in Miyagi prefecture shifted a whole 5.3 metres (17 ft) east and its land sank 1.2 metres (4 ft).

The quake and ensuing 10-metre high tsunami devastated Japan's north east coastal region, wiping towns off the map and making more than 360,000 people homeless in a test for the Asian nation's reputation for resilience and social cohesion.

Radiation leaked from an unstable nuclear reactor in Fukushima prefecture, near Sendai, a port of 1 million people known in Japan as the “City of Trees” and cradled by dormant volcanoes. Authorities prepared to distribute iodine to people in the vicinity to protect them from exposure.

Iodine can be used to help protect the body from radioactive exposure. The wind at the disabled plant was blowing from the south, which could affect residents north of the facility, Japan’s national weather forecaster said, adding the direction may shift later so that it blows from the north-west towards the sea.

Japan's unprecedented multiple crisis of earthquake, tsunami and radiation leak has stirred unhappy memories of Japan's past nuclear nightmare -- the U.S. atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.

The big fear at the Fukushima nuclear complex, 240 km north of Tokyo, is of a major radiation leak. Nuclear experts said it was probably the first time in the industry's 57-year history that sea water has been used to cool the fuel rods, a sign of how close Japan may be to a major accident.

On the negative side, evidence has begun emerging of radiation leaks from the plant, including into food and water.

Though public fear of radiation runs deep, and anxiety has spread as far as the Pacific-facing side of the United States, Japanese officials say levels so far are not alarming.

Some airports in Asia have been checking passengers arriving forom Japan for signs of radiation, including Jakarta airport where offocials were using Geiger counters on all those coming on flights from Japan.

Traces exceeding Japanese safety standards were found in milk from a farm about 30 km (18 miles) from the plant and spinach grown in neighbouring Ibaraki prefecture.

Tiny levels of radioactive iodine have also been found in tap water in Tokyo, about 240 km (150 miles) to south. Many tourists and expatriates have already left and residents are generally staying indoors.

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