Already 88,000 people are declared missing and multiple nuclear reactors are damaged. This may be a death blow for Japan greater than the atomic bombs america dropped on it if multiple reactors meltdown.
Emergency declared at two Japanese nuclear plantsVIDEOAn aerial image of a damaged nuclear plant in Japan is shown on Friday, March 11, 2011. This October 2008 photo shows the Fukushima No. 1 power plant of Tokyo Electric Power Co. at Okuma, Fukushima prefecture, northern Japan. Japan's top government spokesman says the country has issued a state of emergency at the nuclear power plant after its cooling system failed. There was no radiation leak. (AP
An aerial image of a damaged nuclear plant in Japan is shown on Friday, March 11, 2011.
CTV.ca News Staff
Date: Fri. Mar. 11 2011 7:20 PM ET
A state of emergency has been declared at two of Japan's nuclear power plants, and officials say that radiation inside one of them has jumped to 1,000 times the normal level following the country's strongest earthquake on record.
The quake, which struck Friday at 2:46 p.m. local time off the country's eastern coast, has spurred at least 50 aftershocks and a powerful tsunami that ploughed several kilometres inland.
Infrastructure along the northeastern coast was damaged or wiped out by waves as high as seven metres, and by fires left burning in its wake.
The disaster has also prompted 10 nuclear power plants to be shut down.
At the Fukushima Daiichi plant, about 260 kilometres north of Tokyo, the quake caused a cooling system to fail after power was knocked out on Friday.
Pressure began to build inside, prompting the government to declare a state of emergency for the first time ever at a nuclear facility. Hours later, another state of emergency was declared at a second nuclear power plant, again over a problem with its cooling system.
Five nuclear reactors are affected by the emergency declaration. All have been shut down, but reactors can remain hot for some time afterward.
Authorities evacuated at least 3,000 residents in a 10-kilometre radius of the Fukushima facility near the city of Onahama.
Early on Saturday local time, the country's nuclear safety agency said that radiation had seeped from the buildings. Levels were eight times higher than normal outside the plant's front gate.
Pressure inside one of six boiling water reactors had risen to 1.5 times the normal level, Japan's nuclear safety agency said. Following the evacuation order, the government said the plant would release slightly radioactive vapor in the hopes of averting a possible meltdown.
"With evacuation in place and the ocean-bound wind, we can ensure the safety," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said at a news conference early Saturday.
Workers were scrambling to restore the water supply to the reactor's cooling system, while a continuing power outage at the plant delayed plans to release vapor from its reactor.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said it had declared a heightened state of alert for the plant but that no leaked radiation had been detected there following the shut-down.
"The IAEA is seeking further details on the situation at Fukushima Daiichi and other nuclear power plants and research reactors, including information on off-site and on-site electrical power supplies, cooling systems and the condition of the reactor buildings," the IAEA said in a statement.
Officials said there were no reports of injuries or leaks at any of the affected nuclear facilities.
However, Danny Eudy, a 52-year-old American technician at the plant, told his wife that he and other workers were "waiting to be rescued, and they're in bad shape," she said to The Associated Press by phone.
Eudy called his wife after the ordeal and told her the quake shook the plant violently.
"Everything was falling from the ceiling," she said, and then the tsunami hit the area.
Elsewhere, a fire reportedly broke out at a nuclear plant in the hard-hit Miyagi prefecture. Tohoku Electric Power Co. said the fire had been extinguished and the cause is under investigation.
Another reactor in the same area was leaking water.
