Japan faces nuclear meltdown after explosion at power plant

Devastated ... Minamisanriku

 

 

A RADIATION leak sparked panic today after a huge blast at a nuclear power station threatened a second catastrophe after yesterday's apocalyptic tsunami quake left at least 574 dead in Japan.

Thousands more are feared dead - nearly 10,000 are unaccounted for in one town alone.
The Japanese government confirmed today that officials were battling to avert a disastrous nuclear meltdown as locals were urged to stay indoors and avoid drinking tap water.

Under water ... the ruined town of Minamisanriku

AP

They were told to cover their faces with masks and wet towels if they are outside as shocking footage emerged of plumes of smoke exploding out of the reactor building.
In the northern Japanese town of Minamisanriku 9,500 people were missing.
A border collie named Byron trained to detect the scent of live casualties was part of a 59-strong group of specialists from the UK International Search and Rescue (UK-ISAR) team jetting off to Japan tonight carrying with them 11 tonnes of equipment.
Rescue crews in Japan were already trying to reach those stranded in the ruins of Minamisanriku where the devastation resembled that of total apocalypse. Rescuers in helicopters attempted to land where they could surrounded by a murky brown wasteland, littered with debris and the occasional ruined building.

Prime Minister Naoto Kan called it an "unprecedented national disaster" and appealed for calm as nuclear scientists poured sea water mixed with boric acid into the reacter chamber at Fukushima Daiichi to prevent "criticality".
Earlier Japanese authorities told the UN atomic watchdog they were preparing to distribute iodine to people living near nuclear power plant to limit the potential effects of exposure to radiation.

In ruins ... a helicopter lands at Minamisanriku

Several workers were injured and three suffered radiation exposure in the explosion at the Tokyo Power Electric Co's Unit 1 as they struggled to contain damage at the crippled reactor.
The huge blast - caused by hydrogen mixing with oxygen outside the reactor - destroyed a concrete building, leaving only its metal frame standing as smoke spewed from the massive compound. The Japanese nuclear agency could not say how much radiation was in the atmosphere or how hot the reactor was.

Blast ... building at crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant is destroyed following earthquake and tsunami damage

Most of the 51,000 people living in the danger area have been evacuated as radiation inside the plant's control room was said to be 1,000 TIMES the normal level.
An extended 12-mile exclusion zone has been set up while pressure has built up to twice the normal level in the reactor forcing officials to vent "radioactive vapours".

Russian nuclear expert Yaroslov Shtrombakh said a Chernobyl-style meltdown was unlikely.
"It's not a fast reaction like at Chernobyl," he said.
"I think that everything will be contained within the grounds, and there will be no big catastrophe."

Leak ... the Japanese government has confirmed radioactive disaster

In 1986, the Chernobyl nuclear reactor exploded and caught fire, sending a cloud of radiation over much of Europe.
Japan has declared states of emergency for five nuclear reactors at two power plants after the units lost cooling ability.
Later, government spokesman Yukio Edano declared radiation around the plant was actually dropping and did not rise after the blast.


The nuclear crisis follows Japan's worst quake - followed minutes later by a monster tsunami - with waves up to four storeys high.
Some estimates put the death toll from yesterday's disaster at more than 1,700.
Troops have found 300 to 400 bodies in the coastal city of Rikuzentakata which was almost totally wiped out by the tsunami.

Rescued ... people in a floating container taken from a building in Miyagi Prefecture, north-east Japan

Helicopter news crews filmed a jawdropping tide of destruction as the wall of death surged inland for miles - sweeping all before it. Cities and towns were wiped out. Buildings that had withstood the 8.9-magnitude quake were bulldozed off their foundations like matchwood - some floating away on the 60mph tide in flames.

Wave of death ... tsunami hits Iwanuma, north Japan

Collapsed roads split by the shaking barely 30 minutes earlier vanished under a vast inland sea. More than 215,000 people were living in 1,350 temporary shelters in five regions and over 1million people were left without water.

Terrified drivers desperate to find a way to escape stood no chance. Lorries and cars were sent cascading - piling up like discarded toys before then being sucked out to sea as the churning ocean retreated.

Evacuation ... soldiers pull a boat across floodwater in Tagajo city, Miyagi

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Thousands were feared to have perished. Last night one of Japan's iconic bullet trains was missing.
It had been carrying hundreds of passengers. Contact was lost with three other trains. At least one had been swept off its tracks. The rest have still not been found.

Aftermath ... light airplane and vehicle swept away in Sendai

Three nuclear plants bore the brunt of the quake and some were then swamped - sparking fears of a meltdown.

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A dam in Japan's north-east Fukushima province collapsed, unleashing a torrent that swept away 1,800 homes.

Please help us ... injured tended by rescuers in Tokyo

The official death toll has reached 574 with 586 people missing and 1,105 injured. But emergency teams warned that was likely to spiral. Japan officially has asked the UK to join the aid effort.
Andrew Mitchell, Secretary of State for International Development said: "Our thoughts are with the people of Japan as they begin to recover from this terrible disaster.
"The scale of widespread devastation is severe, leaving many people unaccounted for and vast areas of the country devastated.
"The Japanese Government has appealed directly to us for help. We will immediately dispatch a team to help Japan search for survivors as quickly as possible. Our highly trained rescue teams will leave the UK this afternoon and travel directly to the disaster zone."

The sheer destruction was estimated to top £7billion. Tens of thousands were left homeless.

Inferno ... oil refinery erupting in flames in Chiba city

Japan's MPs were poised to back an emergency budget after PM Naoto Kan begged them to "save the country". Air force jets and helicopters raced to the country's devastated eastern coast along with rescue troops.

Chaos ... water sweeps over airport

The earthquake - described by experts as a "megathrust" - was a monumental 8,000 times bigger than the one that wrecked Christchurch in New Zealand last month. It was followed by 125 aftershocks - some of those massive in their own right. One registered a magnitude of 6.7. The main quake struck at 2.46pm local time, 5.46am in London.

Its epicentre was six miles beneath the seabed 80 miles off Japan's east coast. The mammoth tremor sparked a tsunami alert around the entire Pacific rim as a 30ft wall of water raced across the vast ocean at 500mph - as fast as a jetliner. It was still 10ft high by the time it hit Hawaii - 3,900 miles away.
Evacuation plans were put into action there - and also on the US west coast which was buffeted more than 5,000 miles away. Docks were ripped out of harbours in California, with reports of damage running into millions of dollars in Crescent City. One man taking photos in Del Norte County, northern California, was missing last night after he was swept out to sea.
Two pals made it back to shore, while on the coast of Oregon at least four others survived after being swept off a beach.
The tremor was the world's fifth biggest since records began in the 1800s. It eclipsed the Great Kanto earthquake of 1923, which had a magnitude of 7.9 and killed more than 140,000 in and around Tokyo.
This time the capital escaped the worst - although it was violently rocked for at least two minutes. Office workers scrambled to hide under desks.

Shocking ... giant wall of water slams into Japan's north-eastern coast

AP

Modern buildings in quake-prone Japan are designed to withstand tremors but yesterday's was so ferocious it tested many to their limits - sparking panic.
Falling debris injured countless people as they swarmed into Tokyo's streets.

Blaze ... fire burns out of control at oil refinery near Tokyo

With public transport all but paralysed hundreds of thousands found themselves stranded. Many were forced to spend a night outdoors after finding hotels full.
But it was in and around the city of Sendai - 170 miles from Tokyo - that the real horror unfolded as the tsunami smashed into 1,300 miles of coastline.

Japan has a sophisticated tsunami alert system - but there was simply no time to warn people. Some said the wall of water hit just 15 minutes after the quake.
Heartbeaking TV footage showed people trying to outrun it - some in cars, others on foot.

Raging waters ... tsunami triggers whirlpool near a port in Oarai, on Japan's north-eastern coast

AP

The surging sea turned into a maelstrom of wreckage and mud as it bore down on them. Boats were ripped from their moorings and sent hurtling down streets. They mingled with bobbing cars and whole uprooted houses - some floating in flames after ruptured gas pipes exploded.
Around 100 people were on a vessel owned by a shipbuilder in Ishinomaki that was swept away.

Collapse ... road couldn't withstand force of earthquake

Up to 300 corpses were recovered in Sendai alone. Charlie Wonk, who works at the city's university, said: "I saw more than 20 dead bodies in the street. Some were kids."

Alone ... man stands on roof as he watches waters rage below

Local resident Mark Avancena said: "I thought we were going to die. There was an unusual silence, like the world had stopped, and then the earthquake started. It felt like it went on forever." His mother Edith added: "The water entered the house with such force it broke all the windows.

Rubble ... residents walk through debris of collapsed homes

AP

"We looked at each other and started saying our goodbyes." On the east coast of northern Honshu island, 3,000 homes were said to have been destroyed.

Debris ... cars and planes were swept away by huge waves

Hours after the impact, huge orange balls of flame rolled up into the night sky around a petrochemical complex in Sendai. Another refinery erupted in Chiba City - and a massive blaze also engulfed one in Ichihara near Tokyo. Fire crews battled at least 80 huge fires - ten in the capital where four million homes were blacked out.

Hospital staff were among those stranded on rooftops by the tsunami. They held up SOS banners with the words "Food" and "Help".
US worker Jarrod Lentz, 27 - who had only been in Tokyo a week - admitted he was at first excited to experience his first quake.

Destroyed ... houses sit under feet of water

But he said: "It quickly escalated. It got to the point where I could no longer stand. "I could see the concrete outside my window rippling like water. The streets cracked open and it made a very loud, very violent sound. It was surreal."
Much of Japan's industry ground to a halt. Among factories forced to shut were six owned by electronics giant Sony. The UN said 68 rescue teams from more than 45 countries were on standby. PM David Cameron said Britain was ready to do all it can to help.
He described the quake as a "terrible reminder of the destructive power of nature". US President Barack Obama said he was "heartbroken" by images of the disaster.

Damage ... tanks toppled over at brewery in Sendai as fire blazes in Tokyo building

Reuters / WENN

Amid the chaos, the Foreign Office said of fears Brits were among victims: "We can't say for sure." Both the Queen and Prince Charles sent messages to Japan's Emperor Akihito. Her Majesty said she was "saddened to hear of the tragic loss of life".

Charles said he and Camilla were in "shock" - adding: "You are constantly in our thoughts and prayers at this most dreadful and challenging of times."