Fukushima nuclear plant emergency: week three - in pictures

Wednesday 30 March Photograph: Guardian

Tsunehisa Katsumata, centre, chairman of Tepco, Japan's main electricity supplier, at a news conference in Tokyo. He said it will take more than a few weeks to fix the Fukushima nuclear power plant. Earlier, Tepco announced that its president, Masataka Shimizu, was taken to hospital yesterday suffering from hypertension. Katsumata is taking over Shimizu's position in leading efforts to control the crisis Photograph: Franck Robichon/EPA

An aerial photo of the damaged reactors at Fukushima taken on 20 March but released today. Tepco's chairman, Tsunehisa Katsumata, announced it will be take than a few weeks to fix the plant Photograph: HO/EPA

Emperor Akihito of Japan, top, talks to evacuees at a shelter in Tokyo accommodating people mainly from Fukushima prefecture Photograph: Issei Kato/Reuters

A frogman is screened for leaked radiation after an undersea search at the port of Obama in north-eastern Japan Photograph: Naoki Hakamada/AP

A map of US nuclear sites is shown as US Democratic Representative Ed Markey of Massachussetts holds a press conference outside Congress in Washington DC. After the recent disaster at Fukushima, he wants the Obama administration to implement a law passed in 2002 to distribute radiation emergency pills to people living within 20 miles of a nuclear reactor Photograph: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images

Greenpeace activists stage a candlelight vigil in front of the Japan embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia, expressing solidarity with victims of the earthquake, tsunami and the unfolding nuclear disaster at Fukushima Photograph: Mast Irham/EPA

Tuesday 29 March Photograph: Guardian

Officials believe that new pools of radioactive water discovered leaking from the nuclear complex are behind the soaring levels of radiation spreading into soil and seawater around the plant Photograph: AP

Workers in Chiba-ken, Japan test a Chinese pump truck which shoots wet concrete before it is sent to Fukushima Photograph: Keystone/ Rex Features

Japanese frozen fish at a storage facility at Ladkrabang customs in Bangkok. Thai authorities have asked importers and distributors to avoid or at least reduce imports of Japanese food products including meat, dairy products, seafood and seaweed. Japan has already stopped shipments of vegetables and milk from near the Fukushima nuclear plant Photograph: Sukree Sukplang/Reuters

Five-year-old Ami Matsuya is tested for possible radiation exposure at an evacuation centre in Koriayama – about 70km (44 miles) from the tsunami-crippled nuclear reactor. Tepco said plutonium believed to have been discharged from nuclear fuel was detected in soil at five locations at the nuclear power plant Photograph: Kim Kyung-hoon/Reuters

An evacuee reads a newspaper at the Koriayama evacuation centre in Fukushima prefecture Photograph: Kim Kyung-hoon/Reuters

Demonstrators hold a candlelight vigil to protest against nuclear power outside the federal building in Los Angeles. Traces of radioactivity from damaged nuclear power facilities in Japan have been detected in rainwater in the north-east of the United States but pose no health risks, officials say. Ohio reported elevated radiation levels in precipitation on Monday, after the Environmental Protection Agency monitors found similar instances in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania Photograph: Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images

Monday 28 March Photograph: Guardian

Workers at the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency listen as their deputy director general, Hidehiko Nishiyama, gives a daily report at the Tokyo headquarters Photograph: Franck Robichon/EPA

Hidehiko Nishiyama, deputy director general of NISA, gives his report inside the briefing room Photograph: Franck Robichon/EPA

A water pump is lifted by crane on to a US military boat to ship to Fukushima. Workers there are pumping out hundreds of tonnes of radioactive water from several buildings. The water must be removed and safely stored before work can continue on the plant's cooling system Photograph: Tsuyoshi Yoshioka/AP

Takashi Fujimoto, centre, executive vice-president of Tepco, Japan's main electricity supplier, addresses a news conference in Tokyo Photograph: Toru Hanai/Reuters

Power and telephone lines damaged in the earthquake and tsunami are repaired in Iwaki, Fukushima prefecture Photograph: Tsuyoshi Yoshioka/AP

A woman is tested for nuclear radiation at an evacuation centre in Fukushima Photograph: Kim Kyung-hoon/Reuters

Sunday 27 March Photograph: Guardian

Japanese police don protective suits before entering the restricted area around the damaged Fukushima nuclear reactor Photograph: Asahi Shimbun/EPA

Reactor No 4 at Fukushima. Its operator said reports that a high radiation reading had sent workers fleeing from the No 2 reactor were false Photograph: Kyodo/Reuters

The condition of the four reactors (from top to bottom): No 1, No 2, No 3 and No 4 Photograph: Kyodo/Reuters

A member of Greenpeace monitors radioactivity levels at Iitate village, about 25 miles (40km) from Fukushima Photograph: Christian slund/Reuters

A fisherman collects seaweed in the Pacific Ocean near Katsuura city, south of Fukushima. Levels of cesium 137 radiation pouring into the sea are causing concern Photograph: Everett Kennedy Brown/EPA

A dairy farmer pours milk on to his fields in Nihonmatsu, Fukushima prefecture, as radioactive materials beyond legal limits have been detected in raw milk
Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

Elderly women rest on the floor of a classroom at Otsu elementary school, which is being used as an evacuation shelter Photograph: Issei Kato/Reuters

More than 300 anti-nuclear protesters participate in a rally to demand the closing of Hamaoka nuclear power plant, in Nagoya, central Japan. The plant is built on the junction of tectonic plates and is considered to be at serious risk in any future earthquake Photograph: Franck Robichon/EPA

A large paper lantern is turned off to save power at Sensoji temple in Tokyo Photograph: The Asahi Shimbun/Getty Images

Saturday 26 March Photograph: Guardian

Smoke rises from the nuclear reactors at Fukushima. Engineers worked hard to pump out puddles of radioactive water after it injured three workers and delayed efforts to cool reactors to safe levels
Photograph: Reuters

A picture from Tepco, Japan's main electricity supplier, shows the control room of the second reactor at Fukushima No.1 plant in Okuma Photograph: -/AFP/Getty Images

A farmer surveys spinach which was thrown out after being harvested in Fukushima Photograph: Jun Yasukawa/AP

Evacuees from Minamisoma arrive at Kusatsu. Their homes are within 19 miles (30km) of the Fukushima nuclear plant Photograph: The Asahi Shimbun/Getty Images