A containment vessel may have ruptured and is leaking radioactive steam in a quake-struck atomic plant in Japan, authorities said on Wednesday, as TV footage showed thick plumes of steam emanating from the Unit 2 reactor.
Already battered by three explosions on site, the possibility of damage to one of the crucial steel containers vessels that cover the cores of the reactors and prevent radiation leak were increased, weakening the last intact line of defence.
The breach came close on the heels of resurgence of flames at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, hours after they were doused out, spurring a retreat from officials battling the nuclear crisis and triggering heightened international alarm.
The Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), the operator of the plant, said officials were still making efforts to bring the fire under control amidst reports that they had to briefly withdraw workers to a safer distance.
Even though they are said to have returned about an hour later following a purported fall in radiation, the development signals the crisis nearing the point of no-control.
The blaze had first started on Tuesday in a pond near the No. 4 reactor of a plant where the used uranium fuel was stored, spewing radiation into the atmosphere that wafted towards Tokyo, 240 miles away.
TEPCO however had said the fire, in the pond of potentially-radioactive used uranium rods, had been doused off even as radiation levels in the area spiked.
The aberrant flow of information and the worsening of the on-ground situation on Wednesday saw discomfort being raised by international authorities.
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) director general Yukiya Amano said there was inadequate communication between them and the Japanese officials.
“We do not have all the details of the information so what we can do is limited. I am trying to further improve the communication,” he said at a news conference in Vienna.
The U.S. said it had sent a team of 34 people from its Department of Energy to help Japan deal with the situation, as reports said the pacific nation might ask for military assistance if the crisis got worse.
Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan on Tuesday had urged people inside a 30 km radius from the plant to remain indoors.
“There has been a fire at the No. 4 reactor and radiation levels in the surrounding area have heightened significantly. The possibility of further radioactive leakage is heightening,” he said in an address to the nation.
Meanwhile in Tokyo radiation levels rose to 10 times normal at one point but officials said the city of 13-million people faced no immediate danger. Long term effects of the radiation, however, were unknown, experts said.
The crisis, triggered by Friday?s 9.0 magnitude earthquake off the country?s northeast shore, was described as a ?slow moving nightmare? could possibly reach the enormity of the Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine in 1986.
On Tuesday, most of the 800 workers at the Daiichi plant were told to leave to avoid radiation exposure but 50 were asked to stay back as they struggle with the fire and pump seawater into the three overheating reactors.
International and local media lambasted government officials and TEPCO executives for releasing confusing and conflicting information about the crisis.
The deterioration in the nuclear crisis came even after officials assured an improvement in the situation, following an hiccup in cooling the reactor with seawater due a malfunctioning valve.
The biggest threat now is that if radiation levels in the area keep spiking, workers trying to reign in the situation will have to stop manual operations and leave the site which could lead to a full scale nuclear meltdown.
Experts said that the scale of the crisis has already surpassed the 1979 Three Mile Island accident in Pennsylvania, and Japanese authorities now face the risk of a steam explosion if the core melts down.
Meanwhile, the widening nuclear disaster, was compounded by the carnage from the Friday?s earthquake and tsunami which is said to have cost no less than USD 180 billion in damages.
The panic has also spread globally with flights to and from Japan getting cancelled, and some embassies advising staff and citizen to leave affected areas and avoid trips to the pacific nation.
Unofficial casualty estimates were doubled to 20,000 on Monday, but officials say about 4,000 people have died and 7,000 are still missing in the what the nation?s Prime Minister has described as the greatest challenge since World War Two.