Nuke plant get trouble after earthquake; 3,000 evacuated

TOKYO: Japan's massive earthquake caused a power outage that disabled a nuclear reactor's cooling system, triggering evacuation orders for about 3,000 residents as the government declared its first-ever state of emergency at a nuclear plant. 

Japan's nuclear safety agency said pressure inside one of six boiling water reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi plant had risen to 1. 5 times the level considered normal. 

Hours after the evacuation order, the government announced that the plant in northeastern Japan will release slightly radioactive vapour from the unit to lower the pressure in an effort to protect it from a possible meltdown. 

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said the amount of radioactive element in the vapour would be "very small" and would not affect the environment or human health. 

"With evacuation in place and the ocean-bound wind, we can ensure the safety," he said at a televised news conference early today. 

After the quake triggered a power outage, a backup generator also failed and the cooling system was unable to supply water to cool the 460-megawatt No 1 reactor, though at least one backup cooling system was being used. 

The reactor core remains hot even after a shutdown. The agency said plant workers are scrambling to restore cooling water supply at the plant but there is no prospect for immediate success. 

Edano said the 40-year-old plant was not leaking radiation. 

The plant is in Onahama city, about 270 kilometres northeast of Tokyo. 

If the outage in the cooling system persists, eventually radiation could leak out into the environment, and, in the worst case, could cause a reactor meltdown, a nuclear safety agency official said on condition of anonymity, citing sensitivity of the issue. 

Another official at the nuclear safety agency, Yuji Kakizaki, said that plant workers were cooling the reactor with a secondary cooling system, which is not as effective as the regular cooling method. 

Kakizaki said officials have confirmed that the emergency cooling system, the last-ditch cooling measure to prevent the reactor from the meltdown, is intact and could kick in if needed. 

"That's as a last resort, and we have not reached that stage yet," Kakizaki added. 

Japan's nuclear safety agency said the evacuation, ordered by the local government of Fukushima, affects at least 2,800 people. 

Edano said residents were told to stay at least three kilometres from the plant and to stay inside buildings. 

He said both the state of emergency and evacuation order are precautionary measures.

Tsunami hits japan after earthquake.

A powerful earthquake measuring magnitude 8.9 hit northern Japan on Friday afternoon, causing extensive destruction to property and lives in the area. The quake struck 20 kilometers deep off the Sanriku coast in Iwate Prefecture at 2:46 p.m. and lasted several minutes. A tsunami caused by the quake struck Kamaishi, Miyako and Yamadamachi prefectures, washing away houses and causing major damage.
The most powerful earthquake to hit Japan on record struck about 400km (250 miles) north-east of Tokyo. It has killed over 350 people so far and the death toll is expected to rise significantly. A state of emergency was declared at a nuclear power plant but no radiation leaks have been reported yet. The magnitude of the quake triggered tsunami warnings across the pacific to New Zealand, Australia, North and South America.
The quake also triggered a massive blaze at an oil refinery in Ichihara city in Chiba prefecture near Tokyo, engulfing storage tanks. There were reports of about 20 people injured in Tokyo after the roof of a hall collapsed on to a graduation ceremony. Residents and workers in Tokyo rushed out of apartment buildings and office blocks and gathered in parks and open spaces as aftershocks continued to hit.
Some reports quote Japanese police as saying 200 to 300 bodies have been found in the port city of Sendai. The damage is too extensive for any accurate numbers to surface. The quake, measured at 8.9 by the US Geological Survey, hit at 1446 local time (0546 GMT) at a depth of about 24km.
The Red Cross in Geneva warned that the waves could be higher in some Pacific islands, Reuters news agency said. Coastal areas in the Philippines, and other parts of the Pacific were evacuated ahead of the tsunami’s expected arrival. The first waves, under a meter high, reached Hawaii late Friday. New Zealand however, soon downgraded its alert to a marine threat, meaning only strong and unusual currents were expected.