![]() Nearby Rikuzentakata was also swamped and destroyed by Friday’s tsunami, killing at least 400 people. At least 10,000 people – half the population of the port of Minami Sanriku – were unaccounted for and the town has been virtually wiped off the map. Others are being gathered from the sea and thousands more are believed to lie buried deep in mud under the debris of homes and cars. The ship was around 100 miles north-east of the plant when radiation was detected. ![]() aircraft carrier sent to help relief efforts was forced to move because of the radiation leak at Fukushima. The carrier are the first to take the action - as a U.S. German carrier Luftansa has begun scanning flights from Japan for radioactive material - but have not found any yet.Īirport fire services have checked planes landing at Frankfurt and Munich, an official spokesman confirmed. Tens of thousands are feared dead, with bodies being picked up from beaches along a 300-mile stretch of coastline. dropped nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Thousands of families have been evacuated and many more were yesterday being checked for radiation exposure as Japan began to take stock of what the prime minister labelled its ‘most severe crisis since the Second World War’ – when the U.S. In Japan earlier a state of emergency had been declared after the high levels of radiation were detected at the nuclear power complex. In the event of a major leak, radiation would take between seven and 10 days to cross the Atlantic. Michael Sicilia, spokesman for California Department of Public Health, said: 'We are monitoring the situation closely in conjunction with our federal partners.' ![]() However, the winds could shift and hit a different part of the U.S after crossing the Pacific. The developments came as Californian officials monitor the situation, amid fears that nuclear material could be blown across the Atlantic to the U.S. it can be used to protect against thyroid cancer in the event of a radiation leak. Japan has distributed 230,000 units of stable iodine to evacuation centres as a precaution. ![]() More than 180,000 people have been evacuated from the area. The government had warned that a further explosion was possible because of the build-up of hydrogen in the building housing the reactor. Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said the Unit Three reactor's inner containment vessel holding nuclear rods is intact, allaying some fears of the risk to the environment and public. Plant managers knew an explosion was a possibility as they struggled to reduce pressure inside the reactor containment vessel in Unit Three, but apparently felt they had no choice if they wanted to avoid a complete meltdown. The fuel rods in the reactor in Unit Two of the plant were partially exposed from their coolant today - which also increases the risk of meltdown.Įngineers have been fighting to keep the reactors under control after the tsunami knocked out emergency coolant systems on Friday.Įarlier engineers were frantically trying to cool radioactive materials at all the reactors with seawater but had halted the process, which resulted in a rise in radiation levels and pressure. The reactor at Unit One of Fukushima exploded on Saturday, blowing several walls away but engineers said the core was still contained. There was a hydrogen explosion at the reactor in Unit Three of the power station earlier today, in which eleven workers were hurt by the blast that was felt 25 miles away. Japan is fighting to avoid a nuclear catastrophe after the tsunami. Some experts class that a partial meltdown of the reactor, but others would only use that term for when molten nuclear fuel melts through a reactor's inner chamber - but not through the outer containment shell.Īs fuel rods melt, they form an extremely hot molten pool at the bottom of the reactor that can melt through even the toughest of containment barriers. Japanese chief cabinet secretary Yukio Edano said it was 'highly likely' that the fuel rods inside all three stricken reactors are melting. The worst case scenario is that the protective shield around the reactors is melted away, resulting in a serious leak of radioactive material. These pools of molten fuel can melt through the reactor safety barriers - there is an inner and outer shield. If that continues for long enough, the nuclear fuel can melt, forming molten pools on the floor of the reactor at thousands of degrees celcius. The Japanese reactors work by harnessing the energy of thousands of nuclear fuel rods, that are normally kept submerged in water to keep them cool.īut if the cooling system fails, the heat generated by the nuclear reaction increases uncontrollably.
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