RADIATION: The U.S. Navy says it's safe to continue normal operations, and vessels are "easily cleaned off."
Five of the six biggest container shippers are maintaining routes to Tokyo and Yokohama after the U.S. Navy said radiation on vessels from the leaking Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant can be scrubbed off with soap and water.
A.P. Moeller-Maersk A/S, Mediterranean Shipping Co. and CMA CGM SA, the top three, are still serving Japan's two busiest container ports, 2 ½ weeks after an earthquake and tsunami damaged the Fukushima plant, 140 miles to the north. Among the top six shippers, only Hapag-Lloyd AG, the No. 4, is diverting vessels to docks in the south of the country.
The Japanese government is allowing ships to sail as close as 18 miles to the stricken reactors, and the International Maritime Organization, a United Nations agency, says operations in and out of Japan can continue as normal, with levels of radiation presenting no medical basis for imposing restrictions.
The International Maritime Organization, a United Nations agency, says operations in and out of Japan can continue as normal.
"These are extremely low levels and are easily cleaned off," Cmdr. Jeff Davis, a spokesman for Seventh Fleet, which is helping with recovery efforts, said Monday by telephone. "Even if they weren't, they still wouldn't rise to the level where they would cause any harm to human health."
Tokyo port, which accounted for 22 percent of Japanese container throughput last year, according to market researcher Alphaliner, has tried to ease fears through steps including posting information about radiation readings. Levels were safe as of Sunday, according to the Transport Ministry's website.
Japanese ports handle about 4 percent of the world's boxes and, prior to the quake, 18 percent of the container-ship fleet by capacity was due to call in the country, according to data from the research unit of Clarkson Plc, the biggest shipbroker.
The U.S. fleet has taken steps to avoid contamination, including trying to keep ships upwind from the Fukushima plant, Davis said. For sailors on missions within 50 nautical miles of the power plant, it's also administering potassium iodide.
Radiation on the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier and helicopters using the ship as a base was cleaned off after the vessel passed through a plume March 13, the spokesman said, adding that there was both surface and air contamination.
Overseas authorities are also scanning cargos, and the MOL Presence was turned away from the Chinese port of Xiamen last week after passing more than 70 off the coast of Fukushima prefecture on March 16.
The vessel showed "abnormal" radiation levels, according to a March 25 notice on the website of the Xiamen Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau.
The ship, which was loaded with 4,698 containers, is heading for Kobe, Japan, where Mitsui will arrange for another inspection, the Tokyo-based shipper said.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection scanned 355 boxes at the port of Los Angeles on the first container ship to arrive from Japan following the quake, according to operator APL. All boxes on the vessel, the APL Korea, were cleared for delivery.
Demand for detection devices ranging from hand-held units to instrumentation wired into the ship's bridge has shown an "exponential" jump, said Alan Betts, sales manager at Sheffield, England-based International Mining & Marine.