— In the shadow of Japan’s struggle to stem radioactive leaks from its stricken nuclear complex, police in white moon suits pull bodies of tsunami victims from an evacuated zone in halting work interrupted by radiation alarms.
The crisis at the plant, which has compelled Japanese officials to increasingly turn to international help in stemming the leaks, has sometimes overshadowed the other disaster wrought by a March 11 tsunami: the decimation of hundreds of miles of northeastern coastline, the displacement of tens of thousands and the deaths of an estimated 19,000 people. “We find bodies everywhere — in cars, in rivers, under debris and in streets,” a police official from the hard-hit Fukushima prefecture said Thursday. He spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters.
Efforts to recover the bodies from the 12-mile evacuation zone around the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant have been slowed by a wasteland of debris, but also by fears of radiation. Police in that prefecture dressed in full radiation suits retrieved 19 corpses from the rubble Wednesday, the police official said.
Authorities declined to say how many bodies might still be buried in the evacuation zone, but local media have estimated hundreds remain.
Each officer wears a radiation detector and must leave the area whenever an alarm goes off — a frequent occurrence that has often dragged the operation to a halt, the official said. “We want to recover bodies quickly, but also must ensure the safety of police officers against nuclear radiation,” he said.
Officers were forced to give up trying to recover one corpse Sunday after radiation on it triggered the alarm.
There also are concerns about the disposal of bodies, because Japanese tend to cremate their dead, and fires can spread radiation. The Health Ministry recommends that the bodies be cleaned and those with even small levels of radiation should be handled only by people wearing suits, gloves and masks.
Overall, including in regions further from the stricken plant, police have recovered more than 11,000 bodies, but estimate that at least 19,500 are dead.
Radiation concerns also have complicated efforts to bring the plant itself under control. Contaminated water pooling inside the complex has begun to leak into the ground and ocean and has restricted where crews can work, and puts them in the uncomfortable position of having to pump in more water to continue cooling the reactors while simultaneously pumping out contaminated water.
Japanese officials are increasingly seeking outside help, including experts in eliminating contaminated water from French nuclear giant Areva. Experts and a robot from the U.S. have also arrived in Japan. “The amount of water is enormous, and we need any wisdom available,” nuclear safety agency spokesman Hidehiko Nishiyama said.
