Japan?s nuclear crisis only worsened on Tuesday after an explosion at a third reactor in a quake-stricken plant even as large amounts of radiation leaked into the atmosphere from another.
A fire in the spent fuel storage pond at the Unit 4 reactor of the Fukushima No. 1 (Daiichi) nuclear power plant is spewing radioactivity directly into the atmosphere, Japanese authorities told the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
The French embassy issued a warning that a low level radioactive wind could reach Tokyo, 240 kilometres from the atomic facility, within 1100 GMT.
The crisis, triggered by Friday?s 9.0 magnitude earthquake off the country?s northeast shore, now seems inching towards the enormity of the Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine in 1986.
Japan Prime Minister Naoto Kan 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.
Most of the 800 workers at the Daiichi plant have been told to leave to avoid radiation exposure but 50 are asked to stay back as they struggle with the fire and pump seawater into the three overheating reactors, reports said.
International media lambasted government officials and The Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) executives for releasing confusing and conflicting information about the crisis.
The problem at the fourth reactor had not been reported before late Tuesday morning, said The New York Times.
The desperate measures of pumping seawater already suggest that the situation verges towards an out-of-control condition and the emergency operations would be difficult to continue if the fire keeps churning out radioactivity.
The No. 2 reactor at the Daiichi plant exploded on Tuesday raising a high possibility that the crucial steel container vessel that covers the core and prevents radioactive leakage could have been damaged.
The deterioration 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, 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, spooked the nation?s economy and stocks plunged over 14 percent.
Coupled with a 7.6 percent slide the day before and an USD 720 billion erosion off the market, stocks appear to be heading for the biggest dip since 1987.
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.
Around 850,000 households in the near freezing northern region were still without electricity and at least 1.5 million had no access to running water.
Casualty estimates were doubled to 20,000 on Monday and an equally large number of people are said to be missing in the what the nation?s Prime Minister has described as the greatest challenge since World War Two.