Japanese authorities are now reporting the death toll from the March 11th earthquake and tsunami is likely to exceed 18,000. This comes as concern is growing that radiation released from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station has contaminated part of Japan’s food and water supplies. Contaminated milk and spinach have already been found. Japan’s health ministry has urged some residents near the plant to stop drinking tap water after high levels of radioactive iodine were detected. Japanese authorities are still working to prevent a full meltdown at the Fukushima plant. Engineers have restored electricity to three reactors at the crippled plant and hope to test water pumps at the quake-damaged facility soon. But early this morning, smoke was seen spewing from two reactors at the plant.

Graham Andrew of the International Atomic Energy Agency: “Efforts to restore electrical power on the site continue. Off-site electrical power is being connected to the local substation for Unit Two today. Work is continuing under difficult conditions to connect power from the substation to the reactor building. Sea water is still being injected into the reactor pressure vessels of Units One, Two and Three. Water injection is not needed for Unit Four, as the reactor is in outage.”