(<>_<>)Nuclear plant spewing radiation (<>_<>) A man walks through the remains of Watari town in Miyagi prefecture, near Fukushima prefecture, where explosions at a nuclear power plant have led to fears of a meltdown. AFP PHOTO / JIJI PRESS
RADIATION spewing from a crippled nuclear power plant in tsunami-ravaged Japan has been detected in Tokyo, in a dramatic escalation of the four-day-old catastrophe.
Higher than normal radiation levels were detected in the capital after more explosions and a fire ripped through the Fukushima No.1 nuclear plant, 250km northeast of Tokyo.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said this afternoon that a fourth reactor at the Fukushima Dai-ichi complex was on fire and that more radiation was released. The fire has since been extinguished but radiation is still pouring out.
Government officials say the radiation recorded in Tokyo is not at a high enough level to affect human health, but closer to the plant mass evacuations have taken place.
Thousands of residents within a radius of 20-kilometres of Fukushima have been evacuated, with Prime Minister Naoto Kan warning people living within 30km of the Fukushima Dai-ichi complex to stay inside or risk getting radiation sickness.
here was an explosion at the plant's Unit 1 reactor on Saturday followed by a blast at its Unit 3 reactor on Monday and third explosion at its Unit 2 reactor at 6.10am this morning, Japan time.
Water levels inside the plant's reactors have dropped precipitously, twice leaving the uranium fuel rods completely exposed and raising the threat of a catastrophic meltdown.
The troubles at the Fukushima Dai-ichi complex began when Friday's massive quake and tsunami in Japan's northeast knocked out power, crippling cooling systems needed to keep nuclear fuel from melting down.
International scientists have said there are serious dangers but not at the level of the 1986 blast in Chernobyl.
Japanese authorities are injecting seawater into the reactor as a coolant of last resort.
The cascading troubles in the plant compounded the immense challenges faced by the Tokyo government, already struggling to send relief to hundreds of thousands of people along the country's quake and tsunami-ravaged coast where at least 10,000 people are believed to have died.
As millions of people faced a fourth night without water, food or heating in near-freezing temperatures along the northeastern coast:
THE official death toll topped 2400 - although the final toll will be much higher.
A THIRD reactor at the plant lost its cooling capacity, raising new fears of a meltdown.
FUEL rods in the third reactor were exposed and seawater was being channeled into the reactor.
ABOUT 2000 bodies had been found washed up along the coastline of Miyagi prefecture, the Kyodo news agency said.
THE US said it had shifted its naval forces away from the plant after detecting low-level radioactive contamination.
THE stock market plunged over the likelihood of huge losses by Japanese industries, including big names such as Toyota and Honda.
The grim discovery on the northeastern coast raised the death toll, but estimates of the toll so far varied wildly yesterday, from 1500 to about 2800. But the Miyagi police chief has said that more than 10,000 people are estimated to have died in his province alone.
A top Japanese official said this morning the fuel rods in all three of the most troubled nuclear reactors appeared to be melting.
Of all these troubles, the drop in water levels at Unit 2 had officials the most worried.
"Units 1 and 3 are at least somewhat stabilized for the time being," said Nuclear and Industrial Agency official Ryohei Shiomi. "Unit 2 now requires all our effort and attention."
Workers managed to raise water levels after the second drop Monday night, but they began falling for a third time, according to nuclear agency official Naoki Kumagai. They are now considering spraying water directly on container to cool it.
In some ways, the explosion yesterday afternoon at Unit 3 was not as dire as it might seem.
The blast actually lessened pressure building inside the troubled reactor, and officials said the all-important containment shell - thick concrete armor around the reactor - had not been damaged. In addition, officials said radiation levels remained within legal limits, though anyone left within 20km of the scene was ordered to remain indoors.
"We have no evidence of harmful radiation exposure," deputy Cabinet secretary Noriyuki Shikata told reporters.
Fukushima prefectural officials said, however, that 190 people have been exposed to some radiation from the plant. Nuclear safety officials said monitoring devices around the plant briefly showed radiation levels six times the legal limit, but they have since gone down.
On Saturday, a similar hydrogen blast destroyed the housing around the complex's Unit 1 reactor, leaving the shell intact but resulting in the mass evacuation of more than 185,000 people from the area.
Officials were clearly struggling to keep ahead of the crisis and prevent a worst case scenario: a complete reactor meltdown.
In that case, the uranium core melts through the outer containment shell, releasing a wave of radiation and resulting in major, widespread health problems.
Late Monday, the chief government spokesman said there were signs that the fuel rods were melting in all three reactors, all of which had lost their cooling systems in the wake of Friday's massive earthquake and tsunami
"Although we cannot directly check it, it's highly likely happening," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told reporters.
Some experts would consider that a partial meltdown. Others, though, reserve that term for times when nuclear fuel melts through a reactor's innermost chamber but not through the outer containment shell.
While four Japanese nuclear complexes were damaged in the wake of Friday's twin disasters, the Dai-ichi complex, which sits just off the Pacific coast and was badly hammered by the tsunami, has been the focus of most of the worries over Japan's deepening nuclear crisis. All three of the operational reactors at the complex now have faced severe troubles.
Operators knew the sea water flooding would cause a pressure buildup in the reactor containment vessels - and potentially lead to an explosion - but felt they had no choice if they wanted to avoid complete meltdowns. Eventually, hydrogen in the released steam mixed with oxygen in the atmosphere and set off the two blasts.
Japan's meteorological agency did report one good sign. It said the prevailing wind in the area of the stricken plant was heading east into the Pacific, which experts said would help carry away any radiation.
UNIMAGINABLE DEPRIVATION
Friday's double disaster has caused unimaginable deprivation for people of this industrialised country that has not seen such hardships since World War II.
In many areas there is no running water, no power and long waits for petrol. People are suppressing hunger with instant noodles or rice balls while dealing with the loss of loved ones and homes.
"People are surviving on little food and water. Things are simply not coming," said Hajime Sato, a government official in Iwate prefecture, one of the three hardest hit.
He said authorities were receiving just 10 per cent of the food and other supplies they needed. Even body bags and coffins are running so short the Government may turn to foreign funeral homes for help, he said.
The pulverised coast has been hit by more than 150 aftershocks since Friday, the latest one a 6.2 magnitude quake that was followed by a new tsunami alert yesterday that was later cancelled.
Search parties arrived in Soma for the first time since Friday to dig out bodies. Ambulances stood by and body bags were laid out in an area cleared of debris, as firefighters used hand picks and chainsaws to clear an indescribable jumble of broken timber, plastic sheets, roofs, sludge, twisted cars, tangled powerlines and household goods.
Ships were flipped over near roads a kilometre inland. Officials said one-third of Soma was flooded and thousands of its 38,000 residents were missing.
According to Japanese officials, more than 2800 people are confirmed dead - including the 2000 bodies found yesterday - and more than 1400 were missing.
Another 1900 were injured. But these official figures are expected to climb dramatically.
At least 1.4 million households have been without water since the quake struck and 1.9 million households are without electricity.
Public broadcaster NHK said 310,000 people were living in emergency shelters or with relatives.
Another 24,000 people were stranded.
With hundreds of thousands of people without power and damage to power stations, Tokyo Electric Power called for people to try to limit electricity use.
Japan's central bank injected 15 trillion ($A181.3 billion) into money markets yesterday to stem worries about the world's third-largest economy. Stocks fell yesterday on the first business day after the disasters.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 stock average shed nearly 634 points, or 6.2 percent, to 9620.49, extending losses from Friday.
Preliminary estimates put repair costs from the earthquake and tsunami in the tens of billions of dollars - a huge blow for an already fragile economy that lost its place as the world's No. 2 to China last year.
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