A massive explosion has rocked a Japanese nuclear power plant after Friday's devastating earthquake. A huge pall of smoke was seen coming from the plant at Fukushima and several workers were injured. Japanese officials say the container housing the reactor was not damaged and that radiation levels have now fallen. A huge relief operation is under way after the 8.9-magnitude earthquake and tsunami, which is thought to have killed at least 1,000 people. The offshore earthquake triggered a tsunami which wreaked havoc on Japan's north-east coast, sweeping far inland and devastating a number of towns and villages. [ BBC NEWS ] Damage from mega quake increasing, death toll feared to top 1,700Damage caused by Friday's catastrophic earthquake in Japan expanded Saturday, with the combined number of people who have died or are unaccounted for is feared to top 1,700, while an explosion occurred at the nuclear reactor building of Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant and injured four workers. The four are conscious and their injuries are not life-threatening, according to the electricity firm, while the Fire and Disaster Management Agency dispatched the Hyper Rescue squad from Tokyo to bring equipment to cool down the nuclear plant facilities. Radioactive materials -- cesium and iodine -- were also detected around the No. 1 reactor of the plant, according to the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency. [ KYODO NEWS ] Nearly 10,000 missing in Miyagi prefectureNortheast Japan was a wasteland Saturday morning after the country's strongest earthquake on record triggered a 30-foot tsunami. The cascade of destruction killed hundreds, forced tens of thousands of people from their homes and raised fears about radioactive released from damaged nuclear power reactors. Sendai, a city of one million people, was among the hardest-hit areas of the nation. An aerial tour by helicopter Saturday morning near the local airport showed a dead zone of small planes, helicopters and cars strewn half-submerged in green-brown water. Along the coast north of the airport, oil-storage tanks burned brightly, sending a funnel of pitch-black smoke nearly a mile into the sky. Fires burned in industrial parks ringing the area, nearly 24 hours after Friday's 8.9-magnitude earthquake, one of the world's five strongest over the past century, ground life across the country to a halt. [ WSJ ] 
A strong 6.8 magnitude aftershock struck off the east coast of Japan on Saturday, US seismologists said, less than 24 hours after a massive earthquake created a powerful and destructive tsunami. The aftershock, which the US Geological Survey said hit at a depth of just 24 kilometers (15 miles), was centered 174 kilometers east-southeast of the city of Sendai, the scene of huge devastation when a 10-meter (33-foot) tsunami struck on Friday. [ Phillippine news ] Radiation Leak at Nuclear Plant in JapanA blast at a Japanese nuclear power station Saturday destroyed a building housing the reactor, but a radiation leak was decreasing despite fears of a meltdown from damage caused by a powerful earthquake and subsequent tsunami, according to officials. Japanese officials confirmed a radiation leak at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant -- one of two such plants crippled by a devastating earthquake and subsequent tsunami that has caused widespread damage throughout the region. [ FOX NEWS ] |
