Nuclear Crisis: Tokyo reports elevated radiation

TOKYO: panic swept Tokyo on Tuesday after rising levels of radiation around the earthquake-affected North's nuclear stations of the city, causing some residents to leave the capital and others to stock up on food and supplies.
Several embassies advised staff and citizens to leave the affected areas, tourists interrupted vacations and multinational companies or encouraged employees to leave or told that they were considering plans to move outside of Tokyo.
The high level of radiation leaks from the crippled nuclear power plants in the tsunami-affected north-eastern Japan after the third reactor explosion rocked on Tuesday and the fourth fire in a dramatic escalation of the 4-day disaster. Government warned 140,000 people near the stay indoors to avoid exposure.
Tokyo also reported slightly elevated levels of radiation, but officials said the increase was too small to threaten 39 million people in the metropolitan area, about 170 miles (270 kilometers).
In a nationally televised statement, the Prime Minister Naoto Kan said the radiation spread from the four reactors at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi Fukushima nuclear power plant in the state, one of the most affected by the 9.0-magnitude earthquake on Friday and the subsequent tsunami that killed more than 12000 people, plunged millions into poverty and beating the third-largest economy in the world.
Officials south of Fukushima, presented to 100 times normal radiation levels Tuesday morning, Kyodo News agency reported. Although these figures are alarming, if there is prolonged exposure, they are not fatal.