15 March,2011 07:09 AM IST | | Agencies
Engineers race to cool down a third reactor at a quake-stricken Japanese nuclear plant, after a second blast rocks the facility
Japan was yesterday battling to stop a nuclear meltdown after a second blast inside the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant.
Tokyo Electric Power Company said 11 workers were injured and seven were missing after the hydrogen explosion in the No.3 reactor.
The destruction of homes and buildings following the tsunami and earthquake, which wiped out an entire town. Survivors bundled up at a gymnasium in Sumita after being evacuated owing to the blasts
Officials also warned of a risk of a radioactive leak yesterday when fuel rods in the No. 2 reactor of the plant were briefly exposed.
The cooling system, which usually covers the nuclear rods had broken as a result of the earthquake.
The plant's operators pumped seawater into the reactor but the rods became exposed after the pump's fuel ran out.
A cooling system breakdown occurred just before the explosions at the plant's No. 3 and No. 1 reactors yesterday and Sunday.
The power company played down any health risk, saying thick containment walls shielding the reactor cores were still intact.
People within a 12-mile radius were ordered inside following the explosion in the No.3 reactor, which was felt 30 miles away.
Japan's chief cabinet secretary Yukio Edano said the core container at the reactor was intact and the fresh blast was unlikely to have led to a large escape of radioactivity.
It came as the country braced itself for a second quake nightmare with a mega aftershock likely to hit at any moment.
Japan's world-renowned centre for earthquake prediction said there was a seven-in-ten chance of a tremor with a magnitude of seven or more hitting "within the next three days".
The alert was issued as millions in the hi-tech superpower spent a fourth day without food, water or electricity.
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Police have so far confirmed that 1,597 people have died in the quake but rescue teams claim to have found 2,000 bodies in the Miyagi region alone.
Tweet controversy
Rapper 50 Cent stunned some Twitter followers when his Tweets mocked the earthquake and tsunami victims in Japan. The situation. "Look this is very serious people I had to evacuate all my hoe's from LA, Hawaii and Japan. I had to do it. Lol," he tweeted.
Movie screening stalled
Clint Eastwood's latest movie Hereafter has been removed from cinemas in Japan because of its "inappropriate" tsunami scenes. The movie about the lives of three people during a Tsunami was pulled. Warner Entertainment, Japan, Satoru Otani has confirmed cinemas will no longer screen the film because several scenes are "not appropriate" at this time.
