Massive blast at Japan nuclear plant


BUREAU REPORT, 12-03-2011 11:05:44


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Tokyo: A huge explosion hit a Japanese nuclear power plant on Saturday, triggering a ’nationwide atomic alert’ in the country already reeling under the impact of giant tidal waves caused by a massive earthquake which has left 1,300 people dead or unaccounted for.

 

JA1

 

The main reactor at Fukushima nuclear plant in northern Japan, 250 kilometres north of Tokyo, exploded this afternoon leading to radiation leaks injuring four people as the authorities told 45,000 residents living within a 10-km radius of the leaking plant to evacuate their homes, Kyodo news agency reported.

"The plant is experiencing a nuclear meltdown," Japanese nuclear scientists confirmed, after Prime Minister Naoto Kan visited the site in a helicopter early today.

Reports said the main building of the plant housing the reactor as well as the outer walls were blown away in the high intensity explosion which occurred at 3.30 pm local time (12:00 IST) as the cooling water levels dropped alarmingly through evaporation after the quake had damaged the main plant.

"The loss of cooling water is leading to a meltdown of the reactor," Jiji Press reported.

TV footage showed smoke billowing from the site and reported that the reactor building had been destroyed. The channels and public broadcasters warned nearby residents to turn off air conditioners and not to drink tap water.

People going outside were told to avoid exposing their skins and to cover faces with masks and wet towels.

Kyodo quoting police said that another nuclear plant adjacent to the one which exploded was also malfunctioning with the radiation level reaching almost 1000 times the normal level.

The agency said the damage caused by Friday’s catastrophic earthquake in Japan expanded today, with the combined number of people who died or are unaccounted for feared to top 1,300.

The Tokyo fire department send specialised "hyper rescue teams" to the exploded nuclear plants.

 
Rescue operation on

Meanwhile, Japan launched a massive, military-led rescue operation after a giant quake and tsunami killed hundreds of people and turned the northeastern coast into a swampy wasteland.

Prime Minister Naoto Kan said he is sending 50,000 troops for the rescue and recovery efforts following Friday’s 8.9-magnitude quake that unleashed one of the greatest disasters Japan has witnessed.

The official death toll stood at 413, while 784 people were missing and 1,128 injured. Media reports say the toll it is at least 1,300. In addition, police said between 200 and 300 bodies were found along the coast in Sendai, the biggest city in the area near the quake’s epicentre. An untold number of bodies were also believed to be lying in the rubble and debris. Rescue workers had yet to reach the hardest-hit areas.

 
Devastation

The atomic emergency came as the country struggled to assess the full extent of the devastation wreaked by the massive tsunami, which was unleashed by the strongest quake ever recorded in Japan off the eastern coast.

More than 215,000 people were living in 1,350 temporary shelters in five prefectures, or states, the national police agency said. Since the quake, more than one million households have not had water, mostly concentrated in northeast.

The full scale of those left homeless was believed to be much higher, with police saying they had not received a tally from Miyagi prefecture, the hard-hit province that is home to Sendai.


Kan said a total of 190 military planes and 25 ships have been sent to the area.

"Most of houses along the coastline were washed away, and fire broke out there," he said after inspecting the quake area in a helicopter. "I realised the extremely serious damage the tsunami caused."

The unstoppable black tide picked up shipping containers, wrecked cars and the debris of shattered homes and crashed through the streets of Sendai and across open fields, forming a mud slick that covered swathes of land.

The tsunami obliterated Rikuzentakata, a coastal city of some 23,000 people, the Fire and Disaster Management Agency said.

More than eight million homes lost power, mobile and landline phone systems broke down and gas was cut to more than 300,000 homes, meaning many Japanese could not heat their dark homes during a tense, cold night.

The military mobilised thousands of troops, 300 planes and 40 ships for the relief effort. An armada of 20 naval destroyers and other vessels headed for the devastated Pacific coast area of Honshu island.

 Tsunami warning

Ports and beaches were temporarily shut and islanders and coastal residents ordered to higher ground up and down Latin America’s Pacific seaboard before the tsunami surge triggered by the 8.9-magnitude earthquake in Japan. But it did little damage.

By the time the tsunami waves travelled across the wide Pacific Ocean and into the southern hemisphere, only slightly higher waters than normal came ashore in Mexico, Honduras and Colombia, Ecuador’s Galapagos Islands, Chile’s Easter Island and Peru and Chile’s mainlands.

Waves as high as 6 feet (almost 2 meters) crashed into South America into early Saturday - in some cases sending the Pacific surging into streets — after coastal dwellers rushed to close ports and schools and evacuated several hundred thousand people.

 Aftershocks

Nearly 24 hours after the first, massive quake struck just under 400 kilometres (250 miles) northeast of Tokyo, aftershocks were still rattling the region, including a strong 6.8 magnitude tremor on Saturday.

The US Geological Survey said more than 100 aftershocks had hit the area.

Japan sits on the "Pacific Ring of Fire" and Tokyo is in one of its most dangerous areas, where three continental plates are slowly grinding against each other, building up enormous seismic pressure.

The government has long warned of the likelihood that a devastating magnitude-8 quake will strike within the next 30 years in the Kanto plains, home to Tokyo’s vast urban sprawl.

The disaster struck as the world’s third-largest economy had been showing signs of reviving from an economic contraction in the final quarter of last year. It raised the prospect of major disruptions for many key businesses and a massive repair bill running into tens of billions of dollars.

The earthquake was the fifth most powerful to hit the world in the past century. It surpassed the Great Kanto quake of September 10, 1923, which had a magnitude of 7.9 and killed more than 140,000 people in the Tokyo area.

The 1995 Kobe quake caused USD 100 billion in damage and was the most expensive natural disaster in history.

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