U.S. military orders ships back from Japan reactor

HONG KONG (MarketWatch) - The U.S. Seventh fleet said Monday it was pulling its ships and aircraft back from a stricken Japanese nuclear power plant after detecting low levels of airborne radioactivity, according to a military statement. The aircraft carrier USSS Ronald Reagan was about 100 miles offshore from the Fukushima Dai-Ichi Nuclear Power Plant when three returning helicopter crews detected radioactive elements. Seventeen crew members suffered low levels of exposure from a radioactive plume released from the Fukushima nuclear facility, the statement said. Personnel aboard the carrier and support ships passing through the area would at maximum have been exposed about one month's natural background radiation such as that from the sun and rocks, the military said.