Tokyo, Mar 12: An explosion at a nuclear power plant in Japan destroyed the building housing the reactor Saturday triggering radiation leaks under the impact of the massive quake and the tsunami it spawned which has left at least 1,700 people dead or unaccounted for.
The radiation leak was low after the explosion destroyed the exterior walls of the building where the reactor is placed, but not the actual metal housing enveloping the reactor, Government spokesman Yukio Edano told reporters. The explosion which left four persons injured led to a "nationwide atomic alert".
Kyodo news agency said the combined number of people who have died or are unaccounted for in yesterday's double disaster that devastated the country's north-western coast is feared to top 1,700.
Local media reports said at least 1,300 may have been killed while Chief government spokesman Yukio Edano said it was believed that more than 1,000 people had died.
There were fears that the death toll would rise with Fuji TV reporting that as many as 10,000 people were missing in the town of Minamisanriku in Miyagi. One report said four whole trains had disappeared and still not been located.
The building housing the main reactor at Fukushima nuclear plant in northern Japan, 250 km north of Tokyo, exploded this afternoon leading to radiation leaks injuring four people as the authorities told 45,000 residents living within a 10-km radius of the leaking plant to evacuate their homes, Kyodo reported. The injuries are not life threatening, an official said.
"The plant is experiencing a nuclear meltdown," Japanese nuclear scientists confirmed, after Prime Minister Naoto Kan visited the site in a helicopter early today.
Reports said the main building of the plant housing the reactor as well as the outer walls were blown away in the high intensity explosion which occurred at 3.30 pm local time (1200 IST) as the cooling water levels dropped alarmingly through evaporation after the quake had damaged the main plant.
"The loss of cooling water is leading to a meltdown of the reactor," Jiji Press reported.
Radioacative materials--cesium and iodine--were also detected around the No 1 rector of the plant, according to the Nuclear and Industrial safety Agency.
The concerns about a radiation leak at the nuclear power plant overshadowed the massive tragedy laid out along a 2,100 km stretch of the coastline where scores of villages, towns and cities were battered by the tsunami packing 23-feet high waves triggered by the massive 8.9 magnitude quake.
The number of partially or completely destroyed buildings reached 3,400, while there 200 incidents of fire at quake-affected areas.
Some 181 welfare facilities, including nursing homes, had been damaged.
Around 200 to 300 bodies were found in Sendai's Wakabayashi Ward, they said. Some 1,800 houses in Fukushima Prefecture were found to have been destroyed.
As rescuers have not been able to completely access the tsunami-hit areas with tsunami warnings still in effect, the overall picture of the destruction remained unclear.
In the quake-hit areas, around 5.57 million households had lost power, while 600,000 had their water supply cut off.
Nine expressways were closed and at least 312 domestic flights cancelled. The Tokyo police said more than 120,000 people in the capital were unable to return home last evening due to the suspension of train operations and traffic jams.
Total insured loss could be up to $15 billion, equity analysts covering the industry say.

Lastupdate on : Sat, 12 Mar 2011 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Sat, 12 Mar 2011 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Sun, 13 Mar 2011 00:00:00 IST