Panic sweeps Tokyo after a rise in radioactive levels

PanARMENIAN.Net - Panic swept Tokyo on Tuesday, March 15, after a rise in radioactive levels around an earthquake-hit nuclear power plant north of the city, causing some to leave the capital or stock up on food and supplies.

Embassies advised staff to leave affected areas, tourists cut short vacations and some multinational companies told staff to move from Tokyo out after low levels of radiation were detected in one of the world's biggest and most densely populated cities.

Winds over the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear-power complex, about 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo, are blowing slowly southwesterly toward Tokyo but will shift westerly later on Tuesday, a weather official said.

Some scientists, however, urged Tokyo to stay calm.

"Radioactive material will reach Tokyo but it is not harmful to human bodies because it will be dissipated by the time it gets to Tokyo," said Koji Yamazaki, professor at Hokkaido University graduate school of environmental science. "If the wind gets stronger, it means the material flies faster but it will be even more dispersed in the air."

According to Reuters, the Czech Symphony Orchestra left Tokyo by bus for Ishikawa prefecture on the west coast. About 350 Japan-based expatriates at Infosys Technologies Ltd, India's second-largest software services exporter, are returning to India, its chief executive said. Some international journalists covering the disaster from the worst-hit region were pulling out.

The French embassy advised citizens to leave. The German embassy urged its nationals to consider doing the same, especially those with families.