FUKUSHIMA, Japan – An unexpected spike in pressure inside a troubled reactor set back efforts to bring Japans overheating, leaking nuclear complex under control Sunday as concerns grew that so far minor contamination of food and water is spreading. The pressure increase raised the possibility that plant operators may need to deliberately release radioactive gas, erasing some progress in a nuclear crisis as the government continued its halting response to a catastrophic earthquake and tsunami that savaged northeast Japan on March 11.
A teenage boys cries for help led police to rescue an 80-year-old woman from a wrecked house in a rare rescue after so many days. Beyond the disaster area, an already shaken public grew uneasy with official reports that traces of radiation first detected in spinach and milk from farms near the nuclear plant are turning up farther away in tap water, rain and even dust. In all cases, the government said the radiation levels were too small to pose an immediate risk to health. Still, Taiwan seized a batch of fava beans from Japan found with faint — and legal amounts — of iodine and cesium.
"Im worried, really worried," said Mayumi Mizutani, a 58-year-old Tokyo resident shopping for bottled water at a neighborhood supermarket to give her visiting 2-year-old grandchild. "Were afraid because its possible our grandchild could get cancer." Forecasts for rain, she said, were an added worry. Troubles at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear complex threatened to spread more radiation. While all six reactors saw trouble after the disasters knocked out cooling systems, officials reported progress in reconnecting two units to the electric grid and pumping seawater to cool overheating reactors and replenish bubbling and depleted pools for spent nuclear fuel.
But pressure inside the vessel holding the reactor of Unit 3 rose again Sunday, forcing officials to consider the dangerous venting. The tactic produced explosions during the early days of the crisis. Nuclear safety officials said one of the options could release a cloud dense with iodine as well as the radioactive elements krypton and xenon. The plants operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co., temporarily suspended the plans Sunday after it said the pressure inside the reactor stopped climbing, though at a high level.