Radiation scare as workers flee plant

EMERGENCY workers struggling to pump contaminated water from Japan’s stricken nuclear complex fled from one of the troubled reactors after reporting a huge increase in radioactivity — a spike that officials later said was inaccurate.

An apology followed after employees fled the complex’s Unit 2 reactor when a reading showed radiation levels had reached 10 million times higher than normal in the reactor’s cooling system.

Officials said levels were so high that the worker taking the measurements had withdrawn before taking a second reading.