More than 9,000 people are known to have been killed by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, Japanese police said Tuesday.

The force said the overall number of bodies collected so far was 9,079.

Another 12,645 people are missing.

Officials expect the death toll will eventually top 18,000, with as many as 15,000 people estimated to have died in the hard-hit Miyagi prefecture alone.

The updated figures came as the country grappled with the effects of the damage caused to the Fukushima nuclear plant. Efforts to stabilize the plant continued, while officials banned the sale of food that came from areas around Fukushima.

Food contaminated

Radiation in food can accumulate in the body and poses a greater risk to health than radioactive particles in the air, which disperse within days, Gregory Hartl, a spokesman for the Geneva-based agency, said Monday.

Japan halted shipments of spinach from one area and raw milk from another near the nuclear plant after tests found iodine exceeded safety limits. But the contamination has spread to spinach in three other prefectures and to more vegetables — canola and chrysanthemum greens.

Tokyo's tap water, where iodine turned up Friday, now has cesium. Rain and dust are also tainted.

"To give you an idea," the CBC's David Common reported, "milk is found to have 17 times the safe maximum for radiation, radioactive iodine; spinach [is] found to have 27 times the amount that is a maximum …

Safety violations

Japan's nuclear safety agency says the operator of the country's troubled nuclear complex at Fukushima Daiichi repeatedly failed to make crucial inspections of equipment in the weeks before it was crippled in the earthquake and tsunami.

In a report released nine days before the disasters, the agency criticized Tokyo Electric Power Co. for not inspecting 33 pieces of equipment.

Among the machinery the utility missed were backup generators, pumps and other parts of cooling systems that the tsunami later swamped, leading to the plant's overheating and the release of radioactive gas.

Even before the crisis, Tokyo Electric has been the target of criticism for maintenance lapses at its plants.

— The Associated Press

"Health authorities are saying, 'Look, the biggest threat is if you consume this over the long term, not if you do so once.' Nevertheless, the Japanese government as a precaution is halting all sales, all exports of these affected vegetables and milk from these affected areas, something that will be a terribly detrimental thing obviously to the farmers in these particular areas."

Cabinet spokesman Yukio Edano said Tokyo Electric plans to compensate farmers affected by bans on milk, spinach and canola.

Critical work stalled

Earlier Monday, a plume of smoke from two nuclear plant buildings temporarily stalled work to reconnect power lines and restore cooling systems.

But containment at three reactors in the country's crippled nuclear plants is intact, U.S. nuclear officials say.

Workers attempting to bring the nuclear plant under control have been stalled by incidents like the smoke and by the need to ensure the safety of equipment including wiring.

The source of the smoke, which first appeared at the Fukushima Daiichi plant's Unit 3 and later from Unit 2, is under investigation, officials said. Workers have been evacuated from the area to buildings nearby.

Both reactors have overheated and seen explosions since the March 11 earthquake and resulting tsunami.

The cost of rebuilding could reach $235 billion US and could take up to five years, the World Bank said Monday.

With files from The Associated Press