Nuclear reactors 5 and 6 at Fukushima out of danger

Japan restored power to a crippled nuclear reactor on Sunday in its race to avert disaster at a plant wrecked by an earthquake and tsunami that are estimated to have killed more than 15,000 people in one region alone.

Three hundred engineers have been struglling inside the danger zone to salvage the six-reactor Fukushima plant in the world''s worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl 25 years ago.

"I think the situation is improving step by step," Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Tetsuro Fukuyama told a news conference.

Adding to the good news, an 80-year-old woman and 16-year-old youth were found alive under the rubble in the devastated city of Ishinomaki, nine days after the disaster, NHK public TV said, quoting police.

The workers, braving high radiation levels in suits sealed in duct tape, managed to connect power to the No. 2 reactor, crucial to their attempts to cool it down and limit the leak of deadly radiation, Kyodo news agency said.

It added that plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) aimed to restore the control room function, lights and the cooling at the No. 1 reactor, which is connected to the No.2&' || 'nbsp;reactor by cable.

But rising cases of contaminated vegetables, dust and water have raised new fears and the government said it will decide by Monday on whether to restrict consumption and shipments of food from the quake zone.

Police said they believed more than 15,000 people had been killed by the double disaster in Miyagi prefecture, one of four in Japan''s northeast that took the brunt of the tsunami damage. In total, more than 20,000 are dead or missing, police said.

The unprecedented crisis will cost the world''s third largest economy as much as $248 billion and require Japan''s biggest reconstruction push since post-World War Two.

It has also set back nuclear power plans the world over. Negatives

On the negative side, evidence has begun emerging of radiation leaks from the plant, including into food and water.

Though public fear of radiation runs deep, and anxiety has spread as far as the Pacific-facing side of the United States, Japanese officials say levels so far are not alarming.

Some airports in Asia have been checking passengers arriving from Japan for signs of radiation, including Jakarta airport where offocials were using Geiger counters on all those coming on flights from Japan.

Traces exceeding Japanese safety standards were found in milk from a farm about 30 km (18 miles) from the plant and spinach grown in neighbouring Ibaraki prefecture.

Tiny levels of radioactive iodine have also been found in tap water in Tokyo, about 240 km (150 miles) to south. Many tourists and expatriates have already left and residents are generally staying indoors. Earth-moving

Showing the incredible power of the 9.0 magnitude earthquake, the largest to hit tremor-prone Japan since accurate records began in the early 1900s, Oshika peninsula in Miyagi prefecture shifted a whole 5.3 metres (17 ft) east and its land sank 1.2 metres (4 ft).

The quake and ensuing 10-metre high tsunami devastated Japan''s north east coastal region, wiping towns off the map and making more than 360,000 people homeless in a test for the Asian nation''s reputation for resilience and social cohesion.

Food, water, medicine and fuel are short in some parts, and low temperatures during Japan''s winter are not helping.

The traumatic hunt for bodies and missing people continues.

About 257,000 households in the north still have no electricity and at least 1 million lack running water.