First Fukushima worker diagnosed with radiation-linked cancer

A former Fukushima nuclear plant worker has been diagnosed with radiation-linked cancer, Japanese authorities said Tuesday, the first such confirmation more than four years after the worst atomic accident in a generation.

An official with the health ministry said the ex-employee, who was in his thirties while working at the plant following the 2011 crisis, has developed leukaemia. He is now 41 years old, local media reported.

"The case has met the criteria" to link his illness to the accident, the official told a Tokyo press briefing on condition of anonymity, adding that other possible causes have been ruled out.

"This person went to see a doctor because was not feeling well. That was when he was diagnosed with leukaemia."

The ministry revealed few details about the man, but said he had worked at a destroyed building that housed one of the crippled reactors.

The man, who wore protective equipment during more than a year spent at Fukushima, will be awarded compensation to pay for his medical costs and lost income, the official said, without elaborating on the amount.

Three similar cases of cancer in plant workers are still awaiting confirmation of a link to the accident.

Public broadcaster NHK said about 45,000 people have worked at the Fukushima plant since the accident as part of a massive, multi-billion-dollar cleanup effort.

There has been hot debate about whether the accident would lead to a spike in cancer among employees of the plant and those who lived in the surrounding area.

The announcement Tuesday will likely further inflame widespread public opposition to nuclear power. It comes less than a week after Japan restarted a second nuclear reactor following a shutdown of all plants after the Fukushima crisis.

- Anti-nuclear sentiment -

No deaths have been directly attributed to the radiation released during the 2011 accident, but it has displaced tens of thousands of people and left large areas uninhabitable, possibly for decades.

A huge quake-sparked tsunami, which levelled Japan's northeast cost and killed more than 18,000 people, swamped cooling systems at the plant, sending some reactors into meltdown and sparking a decades-long cleanup.

Radiation was released into the air, sea and food chain in the worst nuclear accident since the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.

Former Fukushima plant manager Masao Yoshida died two years after the accident at the age of 58, but site operator Tokyo Electric Power has disputed whether his illness was linked to radiation.

Yoshida captured headlines after he stayed at his post in a desperate bid to tame the runaway reactors, while his workers battled frequent aftershocks to try to prevent the disaster worsening.

Tepco insisted that it would have taken at least five years and more likely a decade for Yoshida's oesophageal cancer to have develop if radiation exposure were to blame.

The case announced Tuesday was likely to deal another blow to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's unpopular attempt to switch on Japan's stable of atomic reactors as the government pushes to return to a cheaper energy source.

The reactor shutdowns forced resource-poor Japan to turn to pricey fossil fuel energy sources to plug its energy gap, hitting its trade balance and sparking complaints from business about power costs.

On Thursday utility Kyushu Electric Power said it restarted the number-two reactor at Sendai, about 1,000 kilometres (620 miles) southwest of Tokyo.

The same power plant's number-one reactor was restarted in August, ending a two-year nuclear power hiatus, despite widespread protests against returning to nuclear power.

The government temporarily restarted the Oi nuclear reactors in 2012 to prevent power shortage in the central Kansai region, but they stopped operations for inspections in September 2013.

While Tokyo has pushed to boost renewable energy sources, it has said it would continue to restart reactors that are deemed safe under strengthened regulatory standards.