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The walls of a building at the Fukushima power plant were blown off in the blast, leaving only a skeletal frame. Officials said four workers at the site received non-life-threatening injuries.
At least one reactor at the plant was already showing signs of a partial meltdown. Friday's magnitude 8.9 earthquake had prevented the plant 150 miles north of Tokyo from powering its water cooling system.
"We are doing everything to ensure the safety of residents living nearby," said Edano, the government's chief spokesman. "I'm sure residents [living nearby] are feeling unease.
People were reportedly fleeing the surrounding area and Japanese television was urging people to cover their faces with wet towels and not to expose any skin to the potentially contaminated air. An evacuation was ordered for area within a six-mile radius of the plant.
Earlier in the day, workers had been racing to prevent one of the reactors from over-heating by releasing accumulated vapor.
Officials of Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency insisted that the "slightly radioactive" emissions release posed no risk to people or the environment. Radiation levels inside the overheated reactor housing were 1,000 times normal, the agency said, but only eight times normal background at the plant's main gate. Experts explained that the steam carries low-level radiation that rapidly dissipates.
The radiation scare comes on a day most of Japan was still trying to recover from its most punishing earthquake on record.
The Kyodo News Agency said the death toll could top 1,600 or more with countless still missing under rubble and muddy debris.
The force of the magnitude of Frida's quake, which seismologists said released 1,000 times the energy of the January 2010 earthquake in Haiti, broke the foundations under homes and buildings and opened chasms in fields and pavement, swallowing cars and shearing off sidewalks and driveways.
More than 100 aftershocks have jolted Japan since Friday's 2:46 p.m. temblor, including at least a dozen of magnitude 6 or higher, said Dave Applegate, a senior advisor at the U.S. Geological Survey.
The earthquake, centered just off the northeastern coastal city of Sendai, was the most powerful since a December 2004 quake and ensuing tsunami killed 230,000 people in Indian Ocean nations.
The havoc unleashed on Japan just ahead of Friday rush hour has left the nation mired in fear, suffering and hardship. Millions of people are without power, utility officials said, and they warned that outages would continue through the weekend, with rolling blackouts persisting for weeks.
Four trains carrying passengers along the coast at the time of the quake remain unaccounted for, East Japan Railway Co. reported. Only half of the hundreds of people reported trapped in elevators were rescued overnight, according to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism.
Key rail lines remained idle for a second day because of damaged track, tunnels and bridges. Service on Tokyo's vaunted subway system, the world's busiest with 8 million passengers per day, was sharply reduced pending safety inspections.
Limited air traffic resumed at major airports, including Tokyo's Narita International, but most were thronged by travelers marooned after major airlines suspended flights.
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| Japan nuclear plant blast after earthquake |
Reporting from Tokyo and Beijing —
Fears of a radiation leak intensified Saturday after an explosion at a nuclear power plant in northeastern Japan that had been damaged a day earlier by a tsunami and earthquake.The walls of a building at the Fukushima power plant were blown off in the blast, leaving only a skeletal frame. Officials said four workers at the site received non-life-threatening injuries.
At least one reactor at the plant was already showing signs of a partial meltdown. Friday's magnitude 8.9 earthquake had prevented the plant 150 miles north of Tokyo from powering its water cooling system.
Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano in a press conference shortly after the explosion, which left the facility shrouded in plumes of gray smoke, said experts were still determining what caused the blast.
"We are doing everything to ensure the safety of residents living nearby," said Edano, the government's chief spokesman. "I'm sure residents [living nearby] are feeling unease.
People were reportedly fleeing the surrounding area and Japanese television was urging people to cover their faces with wet towels and not to expose any skin to the potentially contaminated air. An evacuation was ordered for area within a six-mile radius of the plant.
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| Japan after earthquake and tsunami |
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| Japan after earthquake and tsunami, japan airport, after tsunami |
Earlier in the day, workers had been racing to prevent one of the reactors from over-heating by releasing accumulated vapor.
Officials of Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency insisted that the "slightly radioactive" emissions release posed no risk to people or the environment. Radiation levels inside the overheated reactor housing were 1,000 times normal, the agency said, but only eight times normal background at the plant's main gate. Experts explained that the steam carries low-level radiation that rapidly dissipates.
The radiation scare comes on a day most of Japan was still trying to recover from its most punishing earthquake on record.
The Kyodo News Agency said the death toll could top 1,600 or more with countless still missing under rubble and muddy debris.
The force of the magnitude of Frida's quake, which seismologists said released 1,000 times the energy of the January 2010 earthquake in Haiti, broke the foundations under homes and buildings and opened chasms in fields and pavement, swallowing cars and shearing off sidewalks and driveways.
More than 100 aftershocks have jolted Japan since Friday's 2:46 p.m. temblor, including at least a dozen of magnitude 6 or higher, said Dave Applegate, a senior advisor at the U.S. Geological Survey.
The earthquake, centered just off the northeastern coastal city of Sendai, was the most powerful since a December 2004 quake and ensuing tsunami killed 230,000 people in Indian Ocean nations.
The havoc unleashed on Japan just ahead of Friday rush hour has left the nation mired in fear, suffering and hardship. Millions of people are without power, utility officials said, and they warned that outages would continue through the weekend, with rolling blackouts persisting for weeks.
Four trains carrying passengers along the coast at the time of the quake remain unaccounted for, East Japan Railway Co. reported. Only half of the hundreds of people reported trapped in elevators were rescued overnight, according to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism.
Key rail lines remained idle for a second day because of damaged track, tunnels and bridges. Service on Tokyo's vaunted subway system, the world's busiest with 8 million passengers per day, was sharply reduced pending safety inspections.
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| Japan after earthquake and tsunami |
Limited air traffic resumed at major airports, including Tokyo's Narita International, but most were thronged by travelers marooned after major airlines suspended flights.
A huge blast blew the roof off an unstable reactor north of Tokyo on Saturday, and white smoke was seen billowing into the air at one of two power plants which the Japanese government had placed under a state of emergency, raising fears of a meltdown at a nuclear plant damaged in the massive earthquake that hit Japan.
Prime minister Naoto Kan had warned that a radiation leak might occur at one of the reactors at the Daiichi facility at Fukushima, 150 miles north of Tokyo, after Friday's 8.9-magnitude quake.
The reports of an explosion followed aftershocks and came as a huge humanitarian operation got under way.
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