World News Engine: Battle to cool Japan plant as food jitters grow

Battle to cool Japan plant as food jitters grow

Engineers toiled to restart cooling systems at a stricken nuclear plant in Japan Tuesday after a new smoke scare, as the detection of radioactivity in the sea fuelled anxiety over food safety.

An external electricity supply has now been restored to five of the six reactors, 11 days after a 14-metre tsunami crippled the ageing facility, but more work is needed before the power can be turned back on.

The twin quake and tsunami disaster, Japan's worst crisis since World War II, has now left at least 9,079 people dead and 12,645 missing, with entire communities along the northeast coast swept away.

Now the shell-shocked nation faces an invisible threat from radiation seeping from the Fukushima No. 1 plant, which lies just 250 kilometres from the greater Tokyo area and its 30 million inhabitants.