Japan denies major radiation leak after blast

Japan on Saturday said radiation leaks from an atomic plant that exploded in northern region were receding and a major nuclear meltdown was not imminent.

Following the failure of the cooling system at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station an explosion blew the roof off one building and damaged walls of a reactor as a cloud of white-gray smoke was seen billowing from the site.

A possible nuclear disaster is feared after the massive 8.9 magnitude earthquake, the biggest one since Japan started keeping records 140 years ago, and the ensuing 10-metre Tsunami that has caused widespread devastation.

Japan?s Kyodo news agency said more than 1,700 people were killed or missing. It also said that 9,500 people in one town were unreachable.

The explosion which took place at 3:36 pm, local time, at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, prompted authorities to evacuate habitations within a 20 km radius.

At the nearby Fukushima Daini nuclear power plant, the evacuation zone has been extended to a 10-kilometre radius from the previous three kilometres.

The authorities told the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that they are making preparations to distribute iodine, used as protection against radiation exposure, to residents in the area of both the plants.

Local media said three workers at the Daiichi plant have suffered radiation exposure at the plant which is about 240 km from Tokyo.

Muddy details provided by government officials and executives of Tokyo Electric Power, which runs the plant, say that the blast occurred in the structure housing the turbines near the No. 1 reactor rather than inside plant?s reactor.

They said that the blast was caused due to the buildup of pressure after the reactor?s cooling system gave in and it destroyed the concrete surrounding but not the steel container, thus preventing the release of large amounts of radioactive material.

Tokyo Electric Power said they intend to fill the reactor with sea water to cool it down and reduce pressure. The process could take up to ten hours but a ?criticality? could be averted.

Meanhwile in the Sendai, a northeastern coastal city that was closest to the epicentre, about 200 to 300 bodies have been found, police had said, but no stocktaking could be initiated yet.

The quake, said to have been nearly 8,000 times stronger than the one that devastated city of Christchurch in New Zealand last month, caused extensive damage along the entire northeastern coastline.

The worst affected is Miyagi Prefecture in Tohoku region on Honshu island where the tremor was felt most, especially in its capital Sendai.

A surging wall of muddy water swept away cars, sea vessels and buildings in northern Japan and devoured whatever came in its path while fires raged in oil installations and people ran out in panic.

At Sendai port the tsunami was 10-meter high washing away coast guard vessels and submerging ports and runways.

In Tokyo, the people rushed out of the buildings during the tremor. The offices shook and footage of Japan’s NHK TV station showed how inside the newsroom everything was stirring in the quake.

Across Tokyo, nearly 400 kms from the epicentre, people trooped into the streets in fear and panic.

Cars and ships were swept away along with dwellings in tsunami in the Fukushima Prefecture in the Tohoku region on Honshu, TV footage showed.

Vast swathes of coastal farmland near the city of Sendai was engulfed by the tsunami waters which devoured houses, vehicles and carried with it the flames and debris of devastation.

The quake also triggered several infernos, including in an oil refinery in Ichihara city in Chiba prefecture near Tokyo, reports said.