Japan: Second blast at nuke plant, core safe

A hydrogen explosion at a earthquake-struck atomic plant in Japan worried experts as the the pacific nation desperately tried to avert a nuclear meltdown, after Friday?s huge quake and tsunami that may have killed over 10,000 people.

The loud explosion blew the roof off a second reactor at the Fukushima No. 1 (Daiichi) plant, injuring a few people and apparently releasing more radiation, media reports said even as authorities assured that the core was not damaged.

The government had warned about the possibility of an explosion at the No. 3 reactor of the Daiichi plant due to the buildup of hydrogen after the pressure and temperature at the facility spiked.

Another explosion had rocked the plant on Saturday, blowing the roof off one building and damaging the walls of a reactor as a cloud of white-gray smoke was seen billowing from the site.

The nuclear crisis only adds to what the Japanese Prime Minister described as the pacific nation?s darkest hour since World War Two after an 8.9 magnitude earthquake and 10-metre-high tsunami flattened entire towns.

Some media reports have said that the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) on Sunday upgraded the quake?s magnitude from 8.9 to 9.0 with estimates of casualties reaching 20,000 and the same number of people reportedly missing.

Two-thousand bodies were found on Monday on the shores of Miyagi prefecture, one of the worst affected districts, Kyodo news agency said.

With still no clear stock of the extent of damage and a gigantic humanitarian aid requirement, the world?s third-largest economy tries to get back on feet as it opened for business on Monday seeing a five-percent dip in stocks and a weakening yen.

A grim faced Prime Minister Naoto Kan urged Japaneses people to hold their grit during the crisis.

“We’re under scrutiny on whether we, the Japanese people, can overcome this crisis,? he told a news conference on Sunday, even as officials confirmed that three reactors at the facility 240 km north of Tokyo were in trouble.

Cooling the fuel rods is the priority, because if they fail, they could compromise the critical metal container and expel radioactive material into the atmosphere, unleashing a nuclear disaster worse than the one in Chernobyl 25 years ago.

Officials had attempted to cool the reactors by flooding them with seawater, an unprecedented move in the industry?s 57-year history that experts see as a sign that they have run out of options.

They have little choice now than to periodically release radioactive steam to cool and relieve pressure to avoid a complete meltdown.

About 80,000 people have been whisked off from a 20-km radius around the crumbling nuclear plant.

As the White House gets increasingly worried over the situation, the first American nuclear experts arrived in Japan to get a clearer picture of the crisis.

Meanwhile, estimates of the death toll from Japan?s biggest earthquake on record and the ensuing wall of water, though still far from a concrete figure, rose to 10,000 reported broadcaster NHK while some others say it could touch 20,000.

Those alive, face grave perils as 2 million households in the freezing north are out of power and 1.4 million without running water.

In southwestern Japan, a volcano sprung back to life after nearly two weeks, sending ash and rocks up to four kilometres in the air, media reports said, even though it was unclear of this was caused by the quake.

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 carnage 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.