Turner & Townsend flees Tokyo over 'nuclear cloud'

Turner & Townsend is evacuating its staff from Tokyo amid fears grew that the Japanese capital could be exposed to dangerous levels of radiation after a third explosion at a tsunami-hit nuclear power plant.

The project manager is flying its two staff from the city to Shanghai tomorrow as a precaution.

Barry Gater, T&T’s Shanghai office director, said that the firm was doing programme management for a car company, which has decided to leave the country as nuclear fears in Tokyo rise.

“Fears over the nuclear cloud means that the client is relocating,” he said. “We are relocating our people to Shanghai tomorrow.”

He said that no buildings were under construction in the country at the moment, but that even working in the capital had become hard.

“It’s possible to get to work, but very difficult, and people are working at home. The power outages prevent people getting to the office, the number of trains are reduced,” he said.

“Lots of people in banks in Tokyo have been getting their people out on Monday and Tuesday.”

Gater added that T&T’s staff had felt the earthquake in their office, but that the decision to evacuate was over the subsequent nuclear danger and power shortages.

“The office was hit by the earthquake. The client and our staff were knocked to their feet.”

Both T&T employees are Australian nationals.