Japan Nuclear Crisis: Radioactive Water Leaks Into Sea From Crippled Plant
...Prime Minister Naoto Kan went to the plant and flew over the tsunami-ravaged coast soon after the wave hit, but Saturday was the first time he set foot in one of the pulverized towns.
Dressed in the blue work clothes that have become almost a uniform for officials, Kan stopped in Rikuzentakata, where the town hall is one of the few buildings still standing. All its windows are blown out and a tangle of metal and other debris is piled in front of it.
The prime minister bowed his head for a minute of silence in front of the building. He met with the town's mayor, whose 38-year-old wife was swept away in the wave and is still missing. Officials fear about 25,000 people may have been killed, many of whose bodies have not been found.
"The government fully supports you until the end," Kan later told 250 people at an elementary school that is serving as an evacuation center.
Megumi Shimanuki, whose family is living in a similar shelter 100 miles (160 kilometers) away in Natori, said Kan didn't spend enough time with people on the ground. Kan returned to Tokyo in the afternoon...
...It wasn't immediately clear whether workers who have been rushing to bring the reactors under control were exposed. People living within 12 miles (20 kilometers) of the plant have been evacuated, and no fishing is taking place in the waters just off the plant.
Because of the evacuations, the plant workers have been the primary people exposed to the radiation leaks. One crew member described difficult conditions inside the complex in an interview published Saturday.
The plant has run out of the nylon protective booties that workers put over their shoes. Earlier, TEPCO acknowledged that the tsunami had destroyed many of the gauges used to measure radiation, forcing workers to share. More gauges have since arrived at the site.
"We only put something like plastic garbage bags you can buy at a convenience store and sealed them with masking tape," said the worker, who spoke to the national Mainichi newspaper. Such interviews have been exceedingly rare and always anonymous.
The worker also said the tsunami littered the grounds with dead fish that remained scattered throughout the plant, attracting birds...
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