TOKYO — Nearly two weeks of rolling blackouts, distribution problems and contamination fears prompted by a leaking, tsunami- damaged nuclear plant have left shelves stripped bare of some basic necessities in stores across Tokyo.
Some people are even turning to the city’s ubiquitous vending machines to find increasingly scarce bottles of water.
At the source of the anxiety — the overheated, radiation-leaking nuclear plant — there was another setback Thursday as two workers were injured when they stepped into radiation-contaminated water. The two were treated at a hospital.
Supplies of bottled water grew scarce in Tokyo, one day after city officials warned that the level of radioactive iodine in the tap water was more than twice what is considered safe for babies to drink.
Residents flock to shops
Frightened Tokyo residents hoping to stock up on bottled water and other goods flocked to shops across the city, some of which tried to prevent hoarding by imposing buying limits.
“The first thought was that I need to buy bottles of water,” said Reiko Matsumoto, a real-estate agent and mother of a 5-year-old, who rushed to a nearby store to stock up on supplies. “I also don’t know whether I can let her take a bath.”
New readings Thursday showed the city’s tap water was back to levels acceptable for infants, but the relief was tempered by elevated levels of the isotope in two neighboring prefectures: Chiba and Saitama. A city in a third prefecture, just south of the plant, also showed high levels of radioactive iodine in tap water, officials said.
Shortages were mainly limited to basic staples, such as rice, instant noodles and milk. Vegetables, meat and tofu, meanwhile, were readily available in most places.
Japan has been grappling with an avalanche of miseries that began with a massive 9.0-magnitude earthquake March 11. That triggered a violent tsunami, which ravaged the northeast coast, killed an estimated 18,000 people and left hundreds of thousands homeless.
The quake and tsunami also damaged the critical cooling system at the Fukushima Dai ichi plant, which overheated and began spewing radiation.
Workers have been struggling to get the cooling system operating again, but their efforts have been hampered by explosions, fires and radiation scares. Lighting was restored Thursday to the central control room at Unit 1 for the first time since the quake and tsunami.
But two workers were hospitalized after stepping into contaminated water while laying electrical cables in one unit, nuclear and government officials said. The water seeped over the top of their boots and onto their legs, said Takashi Kurita, spokesman for plant owner Tokyo Electric Power Co.
The two likely suffered “beta ray burns,” Tokyo Electric said, citing doctors. They tested at radiation levels between 170 and 180 millisieverts, well below the maximum 250 millisieverts allowed for workers, said Fumio Matsuda, a spokesman for the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency.
The men will be transferred to a radiology medical institute today, said Hidehiko Nishiyama, another nuclear-agency spokesman. Their injuries were not life-threatening.
More than two dozen people have been injured trying to bring the plant, located 140 miles northeast of Tokyo, under control.
Fears grow over food, water safety
The crisis has stoked fears about the safety of Japan’s food and water supplies. Radiation has been found in raw milk, seawater and 11 kinds of vegetables, including broccoli, cauliflower and turnips, grown in areas around the plant.
The U.S. and Australia halted imports of Japanese dairy and produce from the region; Hong Kong said it would require that Japan perform safety checks on meat, eggs and seafood; and Canada said it would upgrade controls on imports of Japanese food products. Singapore, too, has banned the sale of milk, produce, meat and seafood from areas near the plant.
Concerns also spread to Europe. In Iceland, officials said they measured trace amounts of radioactive iodine in the air but assured residents it was “less than a millionth” of levels found in Europe in the wake of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster — the world’s worst nuclear accident.
Radioactive iodine is short-lived, with a half-life — the length of time it takes for half of it to break down harmlessly — of eight days.
However, experts say infants are particularly vulnerable to radioactive iodine, which can cause thyroid cancer.
In Tokyo, government spokesman Yukio Edano pleaded for calm over the water contamination and said the government was considering importing bottled water from other countries to cover any shortages.
Officials urged residents to avoid panicked stockpiling, and the city began distributing 240,000 bottles — enough to give each of the 80,000 children under age 1 three small bottles of water.
The disaster’s toll
More than 10,000 Number of confirmed deaths (but likely to top 18,000)
17,500 Reported missing
660,000 Households without water
