Rescue plan drawn up to get Britons out of Japan disaster zone

IN PICTURES: Aftermath of Japan earthquake and tsunami

In a sign of the increasing chaos, British embassy staff in Tokyo were criticised after a British rescue team were prevented from entering the country due to an administrative blunder.

A 12-man unit from the International Rescue Corps (IRC) claimed they were held in Narita airport for 24 hours and eventually forced to return home after the British embassy in Tokyo failed to provide them with the necessary paperwork.

Aid workers reacted with fury after they claimed they were stonewalled by the British embassy on their arrival.

Operations director Willie McMartin said: "There's an emptiness and disbelief. We have never encountered the position where the British embassy, our own country, came up with a show stopper."

Another IRC official said: "It's very frustrating - this is what we trained for. Eventually we thought we should stop clogging up Tokyo airport and left. We handed our rations, which would last us three weeks, to a Salvation Army team at the airport."

Shadow foreign secretary Douglas Alexander said: "The Foreign Office will again have a lot of explaining to do if red tape and bureaucratic form-filling has prevented a British rescue team from helping the Japanese people in their hour of need."

Experts insisted radiation levels at the crippled Fukushima nuclear power station were safe following conflicting reports from the Japanese government.

Panicking workers evacuated the plant early this morning after sensors detected radiation levels dangerous to human health.

However, the report later turned out to be a false alarm and officials returned in a bid to cool the damaged reactors.

A helicopter tried to pour water on one of the compromised reactors, only to be hauled away by the Japanese army after sensors detected yet another spike in radiation.

Officials in Ibaraki prefecture, 80 miles south of the plant, said radiation levels were about 300 times higher than normal.

Malcolm Grimston of Chatham House said: "Inevitably with these accidents there are gaps in knowledge, anomalies and a lack of information."

However, other American experts were less forgiving.

"It's more of a surrender," said David Lochbaum, a nuclear engineer who now heads the nuclear safety programme for the Union of Concerned Scientists, an activist group.

"It's not like you wait days and the radiation goes away. In that time things are going to get worse. It's basically a sign that there's nothing left to do but throw in the towel."

Dozens of British citizens are believed to be missing. The UK embassy in Tokyo ordered a coach to collect Britons stranded 200 miles north of Tokyo in the disaster-struck city of Sendai.

Conditions across Japan worsened as temperatures plunged to minus 2C and snow was forecast on higher ground.

Amid health fears and rolling power cuts, several foreign banks and multinationals decided to evacuate staff south of Tokyo or overseas to Hong Kong, Singapore and Sydney.

A Foreign Office source admitted "we are seriously concerned for a number of Brits" as BMW, tyre firm Continental, French bank Société Générale, Credit Suisse, Bank of America, BNP Paribas pulled out staff. However, Barclays said it was flying some of its senior bosses into Tokyo to show support. One British banker told the Standard: "I'm still in Tokyo but I've got my passport in my pocket and a packed bag by my desk ready to shoot off on a whim if things escalate.

"If radiation levels get above normal X-ray levels then I'll be shooting off on a bullet train. The markets are going like crazy, so it's hard to leave."

IN PICTURES: Aftermath of Japan earthquake and tsunami

Dangerous levels of radiation have been recorded near the Fukushima Daiichi power plant, with higher than normal levels also recorded as far away as Tokyo. The government has evacuated everyone from a 12-mile exclusion zone and told people six miles further out to stay indoors.

What type of radioactive material has escaped?

There are reports of radioactive isotopes of caesium and iodine in the vicinity of the plant. Experts say it would be natural for radioactive isotopes of nitrogen and argon to have escaped as well. There is currently no evidence that any uranium or plutonium has escaped.

Are people right to flee?

Experts say it should be up to individuals to weigh up the benefits of staying. Malcolm Grimston of Chatham House says countries asking their nationals to leave seems an over-reaction. "Outside the exclusion zone, there is no significant risk to health and I would certainly stay there - but if people want to leave, there is obviously the principle that no radiation is better than even a little. There are arguments in either direction."

What are the risks?

Radiation damages the DNA of cells. There are two effects - short and long term. Currently, only workers at the plant are likely to have been put in danger of a massive dose of radiation capable of causing short-term sickness. Symtoms including burns, nausea and vomiting often begin within hours of exposure, followed by diarrhoea, headaches and fever, then damage to internal organs.

What are the long term effects?

Long term effects, which expert say could become an issue in Japan, are an increase in cancer and birth defects caused by radioactive iodine. Radiation around the Chernobyl plant in 1986 caused a jump in thyroid cancer and leukaemia. Nearby Belarus showed a 100-fold increase in thyroid cancer.

What can be done?

Issuing iodine tablets to residents is key. One tablet is effective for 24-hours, and they are still beneficial if taken three or four hours after exposure. If the body has all the iodine it needs, it will not absorb further iodine from the atmosphere. The tablets fill the body up with non-radioactive iodine, which prevent it absorbing the radioactive iodine.

What about food and drink?

Radioactive material is carried by minute moisture droplets in the air. Milk is especially vulnerable if cows graze on grass exposed to radiation. Crops, fish and milk should all be avoided in a contaminated area until radiation falls to safe levels.

How long before it is safe?

It all depends on the type of explosion that occurs. Nitrogen 16 isotopes burn out within seconds but strontium and caesium, usually released when the core breaks down, can remain active for many years. An exclusion zone around Chernobyl remains in place 25 years after the leak.

Are other countries at risk?

It is unlikely at the moment. However, is a major explosion were to occur, a plume of radioactive material could be released thousands of feet into the air, which could spread to nearby countries.