JOIN USJapan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) today endorsed a report by Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), the operator of the stricken-reactor, that estimated that radioactive substances 20,000 times the allowable annual limit leaked into seawater from Fukushima in early April.
Local officials went into the 20-kilometre no-go zone around the plant to examine whether cattle and other livestock abandoned in the no-man's-land must be culled for safety purpose. Products from many of the region's farms has been banned amid fears of radiation.
The search, involving 25,000 Self-Defence Forces members, 90 aircraft, 50 navy ships, police, coastguards and US forces, was the third of its kind after earlier sweeps recovered 438 bodies, the Japanese defence ministry said.
Around 14,340 people were killed in the 9.0-magnitude quake and subsequent tsunami on March 11, while some 12,000 are still missing, as authorities fear that many of them were swept into the ocean and will never be found.
The search mission will also take place in inland areas and waters off the coast within 30 km of the radiation-leaking nuclear plant. Those areas were not covered in previous operations.
Prime Minister Naoto Kan today said he expects evacuees to start making brief visits to their homes within a 20-kilometer radius of the crippled nuclear power plant after the Golden Week holidays through May 8.
"Since we are dealing with more than 26,000 households, we cannot (allow the visits) all at once," Kyodo news agency quoted Kan as telling parliament. "It will take a considerable amount of time," he said.
The guidelines framed by the government are: evacuees will be allowed to stay in the zone for up to five hours, including two hours in their homes and only one representative per household will be permitted, Kyodo said.
Elderly people and those below 15 year will not be allowed to go within 20-kilometer radius of the nuclear plant.
Approving the report by TEPCO, NISA said the leak would not cause immediate health hazards because radioactive materials would be diluted in seawater, while fishing had been banned in areas close to the atomic power station.
Hidehiko Nishiyama, a spokesman for the nuclear agency, said the concentration of radioactive substances believed to have leaked into the sea from a cracked pit between April 1 and 6 was about 30,000 times higher than the level seen in low-level radioactive water TEPCO deliberately dumped into the sea between April 4 and 10.
Amid the worst atomic crisis in the country, triggered by last month's mega-quake and tsunami, Japanese authorities have said the immediate danger of blasts or major radiation leaks at nuclear plant has receded.
The Japanese government plans to submit an interim report summarising the outcome of its investigations into the Fukushima disaster at an IAEA ministerial meeting in June.
Even as the Prime Minister has underlined his determination to see through recovery and reconstruction following the quake, the disaster has impacted Japan's economy.
Production of leading carmakers, including Toyota, has been hit.
Kan is under growing pressurer amid a poll debacle in local elections. Kan's Democratic Party of Japan (DJP) won only three out of 10 elections held over the weekend, BBC said.
In a bid to absorb the financial cost from the ongoing nuclear crisis, TEPCO plans to cut salaries of top executives and cancel recruit plans in the coming year amid prospects of compensation payouts, repair costs and loss of profits.
Media reports said TEPCO's chairman, president, vice presidents and managing directors will see a cut in their annual pay by 50 per cent from April. Executive officers will see their pay drop by 40 per cent.
It said the salaries of managers will be slashed by about 25 per cent and those of general employees by about 20 per cent from July as the company seeks to save USD 660 million on its wage bill.
"We will continue to endeavour utmost effort to handle current situation as well as conduct cost reduction in every aspect," TEPCO president Masataka Shimizu was quoted as saying in a statement.