LOC23:24
20:24 GMT
LONDON, March 16 (KUNA) -- Britons were advised to consider leaving Tokyo
Wednesday as the crisis at Japan's stricken nuclear plant appeared to worsen.
Frantic attempts to cool down the reactors at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant
following Friday's earthquake and tsunami had to be suspended after high
radiation levels were recorded.
Technicians later returned, but it was another setback in Japanese efforts
to avoid a nuclear catastrophe.
The Foreign Office issued advice to any British nationals in - or to the
north of - Tokyo to consider leaving the area because of the "evolving
situation" in Fukushima and potential disruptions to the supply of goods,
transport, communications and power. Five days on, and as snow fell, the
official death toll from the disaster reached more than 4,000, and is likely
to rise substantially with more than 8,000 people missing.
A team which wanted to help in the rescue effort said it was prevented from
travelling to the disaster zone because the UK embassy in Tokyo refused to
issue the necessary documentation.
But Foreign Secretary William Hague pinned the blame for the aborted
mission on the team's own failure to be properly equipped.
Meanwhile, British experts said recovery efforts needed to be maintained to
control the reactors over the next few "critical" days.
Dr. Ian Haslam, head of radiation protection at the University of Leeds,
northern England, said moving the workers away from the plant had been a
"desperate measure" in response to dangerously high levels of radiation.
But he said the danger of radiation was a local issue.
Around 17,000 UK nationals are known to have been in Japan at the time the
catastrophic quake struck.
In the meantime, London's FTSE 100 Index suffered another session of heavy
falls as uncertainty in Japan remained.
The FT slumped 1.7 percent, but there was a 6 percent rebound for Japan's
Nikkei 225. Panic selling in the wake of Friday's disaster sent Tokyo's
benchmark index to a two-year low yesterday. (end)
he.gb
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