Japan's nuclear crisis stretched to three weeks on Friday with radiation widening from a crippled power plant and scant hope of a quick resolution. France - the most nuclear-dependent in the world - called for new global nuclear rules and proposed a global conference in France for May as President Nicolas Sarkozy paid a quick visit to Tokyo on Thursday to show support.
"We must look at this coldly so that such a catastrophe never occurs again," said Sarkozy, who chairs the Group of 20 bloc of nations, during his brief stopover. It was the first visit by a foreign leader since a March 11 earthquake and tsunami battered north-east Japan, leaving nearly 28,000 people dead or missing. The damage may top $300 billion, making it the world's costliest natural disaster.
Prime Minister Naoto Kan, under enormous pressure as he struggles to manage Japan's toughest test since World War II, welcomed the gesture of solidarity. "I told him a Japanese proverb - 'a friend who comes on a rainy day is your true friend', and thanked him for coming to Japan from the bottom of my heart," he said. Illustrating the gravity of the problem and spreading contamination, radioactive iodine 131 was found in ground water near No.1 reactor of Fukushima Daiichi complex, plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) said.
"Radioactive materials in the air could have come down to the earth's surface and they could have seeped into the ground due to rainfall," a company spokesman said. Radiation in water at an underground tunnel near another reactor of the plant had also been found more than 10,000 times above the normal level of water in reactors, Kyodo news agency said.
An abnormal level of radioactive caesium appeared in beef from the area for the first time, but Japan's nuclear safety agency wants to test it again as it had some doubts over test results, Kyodo added. France is a global leader in the nuclear industry, and Paris has flown in experts from state-owned nuclear reactor maker Areva to work with Japanese engineers.
"Areva is one of the companies that will make the most out of a nuclear revival and therefore will be in most trouble if there isn't a nuclear revival," said Malcolm Grimston, an expert from London's Imperial College. Other nations are also scrambling to help Japan. The United States and Germany are sending robots to help repair and explore the damaged Fukushima Daiichi plant. Kyodo said some 140 US military radiation safety experts would soon visit to offer technical help.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which says the situation at the Fukushima plant remains very serious, already has two teams in Japan, monitoring radiation levels. More than 70,000 people have been evacuated from the 20-km ring. Another 136,000 who live in a 10-km (6-mile) band beyond that have been encouraged to leave or to stay indoors.
The UN atomic agency IAEA said radiation at a village 40 km (25 miles) away exceeded a criterion for evacuation, while the head of a group of independent radiation experts said Japan must hand out iodine tablets now and as widely as possible to avoid a potential leap in thyroid cancers. Underlining the terrible and surreal times Japan is living, one newborn baby's first medical appointment was not with a paediatrician - but a Geiger counter.
Food and milk shipments from the region have been stopped, decimating the livelihoods of farmers and fishermen. Various nations have banned food imports from the area. Contaminated milk was one of the biggest causes of thyroid cancer after the 1986 nuclear accident in Chernobyl because people near the plant kept drinking milk from local cows.
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