Radiation leaked from an unstable Japanese nuclear reactor north of Tokyo on Saturday, the government said, after an explosion blew the roof off the facility in the wake of a massive earthquake.
The developments raised fears of a disastrous meltdown at the plant, which was damaged by Friday’s 8.9-magnitude earthquake, the strongest ever recorded in Japan.
“We are looking into the cause and the situation and we’ll make that public when we have further information,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said.
Edano said an evacuation radius of 10 km (6 miles) from the stricken 40-year-old Daiichi 1 reactor plant in Fukushima prefecture was adequate. TV footage showed vapour rising from the plant, 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo.
The quake sent a 10-metre (33-foot) tsunami ripping through towns and cities across the northeast coast. Japanese media estimate that at least 1,300 people were killed.
The blast came as plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) worked desperately to reduce pressures in the core of the reactor.
“An unchecked rise in temperature could cause the core to essentially turn into a molten mass that could burn through the reactor vessel,” political risk information service Stratfor said in a report. “This may lead to a release of an unchecked amount of radiation into the containment building that surrounds the reactor.”
NHK television said the outer structure of the building that houses the reactor appeared to have blown off, which could suggest the containment building had already been breached.
Earlier the operator released what it said was a tiny amount of radioactive steam to reduce the pressure and the danger was minimal because tens of thousands of people had already been evacuated from the vicinity.
Another official said the utility that runs the Fukushima Daiichi plant reported Saturday that several workers may have been injured.
One reactor at the plant is facing a possible meltdown after its cooling system was knocked out.
Media reports estimate at least 1,300 people may have been killed by the 8.9-magnitude quake, the biggest since records began in Japan 140 years ago, and the 10-meter tsunami that swept ferociously inland after it struck.
No Filipino casualty
But the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said none of 4,500 Filipinos nationals living in Tohoku, a region in Honshu Island, that was hardest hit by the earthquake-triggered tsunami, was among the casualties.
DFA Undersecretary for Administration Rafael Seguis said that they are now focusing on contacting and accounting for the 4,500 Filipinos who are in Tohoku. But communication is proving to be the biggest challenge for the Philippine embassy in Tokyo as well as the four honorary consulates in Japan.
“Communication lines in the Tohoku region are still down. Transportation lines are also heavily affected,” Seguis said.
DFA Spokesperson Ed Malaya said the agency have already received over 200 phone calls on their hotline from families in the Philippines who have been trying to reach their relatives in Japan. “We have forwarded the list of their relatives’ names to the Embassy in Tokyo.”
Malaya said that out of the list, 11 Filipinos have been contacted by the Embassy and claimed that they were all “fine.” They are Cherry Kuyos Alesna, Lizel dela Pena, Mona May Engallado, Monpetit
Engallado, Alexander Ilagan, Rosalie Okada, Virginia Pandoy (also known as Mary Ann Alcantara), Marivic Reyes, Criselda Suzuki, Erlinda Ignacio Tsuchiya, and Charito Ueda.
“We’re hoping that by the end of the day, the DFA would be able to contact more. We must first establish their location, and find out if they’re all right. The Embassy is busy looking for them,” Seguis said.
OWWA hotline
Vice President and Presidential Adviser on Overseas Filipino Workers’ Concerns Jejomar C. Binay assured relatives of Filipinos in Japan that the Philippine embassy in Tokyo and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) are ready to help those adversely affected by the powerful tsunami and earthquake.
Binay advised relatives to contact the OWWA if they need to inquire about the conditions of their loved ones in Japan. OWWA may be reached through hotline numbers: 0917-8986992, 551-1560, and 833-6992.
State of emergency
Because of the nuclear leak, Japan declared states of emergency for five nuclear reactors at two power plants after the units lost cooling ability in the aftermath of powerful earthquake.
Reactor cooling systems failed at two generating plants after Friday’s record 8.9-magnitude earthquake hit, unleashing a terrifying 10-meter (33-foot) high wave that tore through coastal towns and cities, destroying all in its path.
Operators at the Fukushima Daiichi plant’s Unit 1 scrambled ferociously to tamp down heat and pressure inside the reactor after the quake and the tsunami that followed cut off electricity to the site and disabled emergency generators, knocking out the main cooling system.
Some 3,000 people within two miles (three kilometers) of the plant were urged to leave their homes, but the evacuation zone was more than tripled to 6.2 miles (10 kilometers) after authorities detected eight times the normal radiation levels outside the facility and 1,000 times normal inside Unit 1’s control room.
The government declared a state of emergency at the Daiichi unit – the first at a nuclear plant in Japan’s history. But hours later, the Tokyo Electric Power Co., which operates the six-reactor Daiichi site in northeastern Japan, announced that it had lost cooling ability at a second reactor there and three units at its nearby Fukushima Daini site.
Nearly 14,000 people living near the two power plants were ordered to evacuate.
Japan’s nuclear safety agency said the situation was most dire at Fukushima Daiichi’s Unit 1, where pressure had risen to twice what is consider the normal level. The International Atomic Energy Agency said in a statement that diesel generators that normally would have kept cooling systems running at Fukushima Daiichi had been disabled by tsunami flooding.
Officials at the Daiichi facility began venting radioactive vapors from the unit to relieve pressure inside the reactor case. The loss of electricity had delayed that effort for several hours.
Plant workers there labored to cool down the reactor core, but there was no prospect for immediate success. They were temporarily cooling the reactor with a secondary system, but it wasn’t working as well as the primary one, according to Yuji Kakizaki, an official at the Japanese nuclear safety agency.
Even once a reactor is shut down, radioactive byproducts give off heat that can ultimately produce volatile hydrogen gas, melt radioactive fuel, or even breach the containment building in a full meltdown belching radioactivity into the surroundings, according to technical and government authorities.
Tens of thousands of people were evacuated from around the plants as Tokyo Electric Power, which runs the facilities, said it had released some radioactive vapor at both locations to relieve building reactor pressure.
“We are not in a situation in which residents face health damage,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told reporters, according to Jiji news agency.
The two nuclear plants affected are the Fukushima No. 1 and No. 2 plants, both located about 250 kilometers (160 miles) northeast of Tokyo.
The atomic emergency came as the country struggled to assess the full extent of the devastation wreaked by the massive tsunami, which was unleashed by the strongest quake ever recorded in Japan off the eastern coast.
The towering wall of water pulverized the northeastern city of Sendai, where police reportedly said 200-300 bodies had been found on the coast.
More than 215,000 people were in emergency shelters, police said.
The full scale of those left homeless was believed to be much higher, with police saying they had not received a tally from Miyagi prefecture, the hard-hit province that is home to Sendai.
‘’What used to be residential areas were mostly swept away in many coastal areas and fires are still blazing there,’’ Prime Minister Naoto Kan said after seeing the damage with his own eyes by helicopter.
The unstoppable black tide picked up shipping containers, wrecked cars and the debris of shattered homes and crashed through the streets of Sendai and across open fields, forming a mud slick that covered swathes of land.
The police said 413 people had been confirmed dead and 784 were missing, with 1,128 injured in the disaster but the toll was expected to rise sharply.
“‘It is believed that more than 1,000 people have lost their lives,” said Edano, the prime minister’s right-hand man and top spokesman.
“The damage is so enormous that it will take us much time to gather data,” an official at the police agency told AFP.
Authorities said more than 3,000 homes were destroyed or swept away and tens of thousands of people spent the night in emergency shelters.
The tsunami obliterated Rikuzentakata, a coastal city of some 23,000 people, the Fire and Disaster Management Agency said.
Some 50,000 military and other rescue personnel were pushed into action to spearhead the Herculean rescue and recovery effort with hundreds of ships, aircraft and vehicles headed to the Pacific coast area.
Army helicopters airlifted people off the roof of an elementary school in Watari, Miyagi prefecture.
The towering wave set off alerts across the Pacific, sparking evacuations in Hawaii and on the US West Coast, damaging boats and leaving one man missing.
Chile said it was evacuating coastal areas and Ecuador’s state oil company announced it had suspended crude oil exports due to risks posed by the tsunami.
The Bank of Japan said it would do its ‘’utmost’’ to ensure the stability of financial markets after the quake brought huge disruption to key industries.
Major manufacturers including Toyota, Nissan and Sony were forced to suspend production at some sites, raising short-term concerns for the nation’s struggling economy.
More than eight million homes lost power, mobile and landline phone systems broke down and gas was cut to more than 300,000 homes, meaning many Japanese could not heat their dark homes during a tense, cold night.
The military mobilized thousands of troops, 300 planes and 40 ships for the relief effort. An armada of 20 naval destroyers and other vessels headed for the devastated Pacific coast area of Honshu island.
Leading international offers of help, President Barack Obama mobilized the US military to provide emergency aid after what he called a ‘’simply heartbreaking’’ disaster.
The United States, which has nearly 40,000 military personnel in Japan, ordered a flotilla including two aircraft carriers and support ships to the region to provide aid.
“It was the biggest earthquake I have ever felt. I thought I would die,” said Sayaka Umezawa, a 22-year-old college student who was visiting the port of Hakodate, which was hit by a two-meter wave.
In a rare piece of good news, a ship that was earlier reported missing was found swept out to sea and all 81 people aboard were airlifted to safety.
But mostly the picture was one of utter devastation.
The tsunami submerged the runway at Sendai airport, while a process known as liquefaction, caused by the intense shaking of the tremor, turned parts of the ground to liquid.
6.8-magnitude aftershocks
Nearly 24 hours after the first, massive quake struck just under 400 kilometer (250 miles) northeast of Tokyo, aftershocks were still rattling the region, including a strong 6.8 magnitude tremor on Saturday.
Saturday’s magnitude 6.8 quake was followed by a series of temblors originating from the same area, the US Geological Survey said. It was not immediately known whether the new quakes caused any more damage. All were part of the more than 125 aftershocks since Friday’s massive quake, the strongest to hit Japan since officials began keeping records in the late 1800s.
Japan sits on the “Pacific Ring of Fire” and Tokyo is in one of its most dangerous areas, where three continental plates are slowly grinding against each other, building up enormous seismic pressure.
The government has long warned of the likelihood that a devastating magnitude-eight quake will strike within the next 30 years in the Kanto plains, home to Tokyo’s vast urban sprawl.
California, Oregon
In the United States, harbors and marinas in California and Oregon bore the brunt of the damage, estimated by authorities to be in the millions of dollars, brought about by the tsunami.
Boats crashed into each other, some vessels were pulled out to sea and docks were ripped out. Rescue crews searched hours for a man who was swept out to sea while taking pictures.
An 8-foot wave rushed into the harbor in Crescent City, California, destroying about 35 boats and ripping chunks off the wooden docks, as marina workers and fishermen scrambled between surges to secure property. Officials estimated millions of dollars in damage.
None of the damage – in the US, South America, or Canada – was anything like the devastation in Japan.
Seven-foot waves flooded low-lying areas in Maui, Hawaii. In Honolulu, waves tossed boats, while water covered beachfront roads and rushed into hotels on the Big Island. The waves carried a house out to sea.
source: mb.com.ph
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