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Two workers injured at Japanese nuclear plant

Two workers at reactor number three at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi plant have been taken to hospital after being exposed to radiation. As fears rise over water and food safety, several countries have banned Japanese imports.

Reuters
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The two employees were working in a building where reactor number three's turbine is located and were exposed to radiation ranging from 170 to 180 milli-sieverts, Japan’s nuclear safety agency says. An exposure of 100 milli-sieverts per year is considered the lowest level at which any increase in cancer risk is evident.

On Wednesday, a plume of black smoke was seen rising from reactor number three, forcing technicians to suspend their work. However, they resumed their work soon afterwards, in a bid to restore the reactor’s cooling system.

Reconnecting the reactor control rooms was seen as a key step as workers hope to restart the original cooling systems.

The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant was badly damaged in a quake and tsunami that cut electricity to the plant and caused the cooling systems to fail.

The number of people dead or missing has reached 25,000 and hundreds remain huddled in evacuation shelters.

As fears grow over the safety of Japan’s water supply, stocks of bottled water have slumped in the capital Tokyo. Many in Japan’s north-east are still without access to drinking water.

Russia on Wednesday banned food imports from four Japanese provinces and a Japanese ship was found to have radioactivity levels three times higher than the norm at the far-eastern port of Vanino.

Australia, Canada and Singapore have joined the list of countries shunning Japanese food imports. The United States and Hong Kong have already restricted Japanese food imports, and France wants the EU to do the same.
 

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