Engineers are trying to regain control of the six-reactor
nuclear power station in Fukushima, 240 km (150 miles) north of
the capital, two weeks after an earthquake and tsunami battered
the plant and devastated northeastern Japan, leaving about
27,400 people dead or missing. 

Explosions in three reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi power
station last week made this the world's worst nuclear crisis
since Chernobyl and raised fears of a catastrophic meltdown. 

While that has not happened, radiation has been leaking and
four of the plant's reactors are still volatile. 

Engineers from the plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co
(TEPCO) , have been making some progress in restoring
power needed to cool down overheating nuclear fuel. 

But on Thursday, three workers replacing a cable were
exposed to high levels of contamination by standing in
radioactive water. Two were taken to hospital with burns,
nuclear safety agency officials said. 

A senior official at the country's nuclear safety agency
said the accident would delay work. 

"We are certainly at a crucial stage right now, so we should
try to avoid delays as much as possible, but we also need to
ensure that the people working there are safe," agency deputy
director general Hidehiko Nishiyama told a news conference. 

A TEPCO official said the engineers were working in a
volatile environment and needed to be aware of the danger. 

"We would like to let those on site know before we resume
work," company official Akira Suzuki said on Friday. 

The huge loss of life from the 9.0 magnitude earthquake on
March 11 and the tsunami it triggered, together with the
prospect of a nuclear nightmare, have brought Japan its darkest
days since World War Two. 

The crisis at the plant has raised apprehension about
nuclear power, both in Japan and beyond, and the government of
the world's third largest economy would have to review its
nuclear power policy, the top government spokesman said. 

"It is certain that public confidence in nuclear power
plants has greatly changed," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano
told Reuters late on Thursday.  

"In light of that, we must first end this situation and then
study from a zero base." 

Japan's 55 nuclear reactors have been providing about 30
percent of its electric power. The percentage had been expected
to rise to 50 percent by 2030, among the highest in the world. 

RADIATION FEARS 

Alarm has been spreading about leaking radiation. 

Tokyo's 13 million residents were told on Wednesday not to
give tap water to babies after contamination hit twice the
safety level. But it dropped back to safe levels the next day. 

Despite government appeals for people not to panic, many
shops saw bottled water supplies flying off the shelves. 

"Customers ask us for water. But there's nothing we can do,"
said Masayoshi Kasahara, a clerk at a Tokyo supermarket. "We are
asking for more deliveries, but we don't know when the next
shipment will come." 

Radiation above safety levels has also been found in milk
and vegetables from Fukushima and the Kyodo news agency said
radioactive caesium 1.8 times higher than the standard level was
found in a leafy vegetable grown at a Tokyo research facility. 

Singapore said on Thursday it had found radioactive
contaminants in four samples of vegetables from Japan. 

Earlier, it and Australia joined the United States and Hong
Kong in restricting food and milk imports from the zone, while
Canada became the latest of many nations to tighten screening. 

Tiny radiation particles have also spread on the wind and
been found as far away as Iceland, although experts say they are
not dangerous. 

Japan has urged the world not to overreact, and plenty of
experts appeared to back that up. 

Jim Smith, of Britain's University of Portsmouth, said the
finding of 210 becquerels of radioactive iodine, twice the
safety limit for children, at a Tokyo water purification plant
on Wednesday should not be cause for panic. 

The safety level for adults is 300 becquerels. 

"The recommendation that infants are not given tap water is
a sensible precaution. But it should be emphasised that the
limit is set at a low level to ensure that consumption at that
level is safe over a fairly long period of time," he said.       

The estimated $300 billion damage from the quake and tsunami
makes it the world's costliest natural disaster, dwarfing
Japan's 1995 Kobe quake and Hurricane Katrina, which swept
through New Orleans in 2005. 

In Japan's north, more than a quarter of a million people
are in shelters. Some elderly displaced people have died from
cold and lack of medicines. 

Exhausted rescuers are still sifting through the wreckage of
towns and villages, retrieving bodies. 

The official tolls of dead and missing are both revised up
every day; police said on Thursday 9,811 people were confirmed
dead and 17,541 were missing. Authorities have been burying
unidentified bodies in mass graves. 

Amid the suffering, though, there was a sense that Japan was
turning the corner in its humanitarian crisis. Aid flowed to
refugees, and phone, electricity, postal and bank services began
returning to the north, sometimes by makeshift means. 

"Things are getting much better," said 57-year-old Tsutomu
Hirayama, staying with his family at an evacuation centre in
Ofunato town. 

"For the first two or three days, we had only one rice ball
and water for each meal. I thought, how long is this going to go
on? Now we get lots of food, it's almost like luxury." 

The crisis in Japan, which holds a key position in global
supply chains, especially for the automobile and technology
sectors, has added to jitters in global financial markets, also
worried by conflict in Libya and Middle East protests. 

Toyota Motor Corp  , which has suspended
production at all of its 12 assembly plants in Japan, said it
would slow some North American production because of supply
problems although it would try to minimise disruptions.