Tsunami 2011

Desperation, panic grip Japan after quake

Japan scrambled on Saturday to avert a disastrous meltdown at a nuclear plant damaged when a massive earthquake and tsunami struck the northeast coast, killing at least 1,300 people.

Jiji news agency said there had been an explosion at the stricken 40-year-old Daichi 1 reactor and TV footage showed vapour rising from the plant, which lies 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo.

Survivors of Japan's devastating earthquake and tsunami huddled in shelters and hoarded supplies as rescue workers searched a mangled coastline of submerged homes, cars and stranded boats. Meanwhile, we are halting the live updates for the day.

9:45 pm: About 50,000 Japan Self-Defense Force personnel were being deployed Saturday in quake and tsunami relief efforts, according to a Kyodo report.

9:32 pm: A South Korean rescue team arrived in Japan, with 55 other nations and regions offering support for the quake-hit country, the Japanese Foreign Ministry said.

9:13 pm: More than 300,000 people have now been evacuated from their homes in northern Japan: Kyodo News reports

Where will the next big earthquake strike? (Courtesy: Good)

Predicting the next big earthqauke
9:44 pm: Japanese PM Naoto Kan inspected areas in northeastern Japan affected by a calamitous earthquake and said the government will do all it can to save as many people as possible.

9:09 pm: A strong aftershock from the devastating earthquake occurred rocking wide areas of the Tohoku and Kanto regions.

8:51 pm: Japanese govt has ordered the evacuation of residents within 20 km of one nuclear power plant and within 10 km of the second plant.

8:48: The loss of life and destruction caused by catastrophic earthquake in Japan grew, with the combined number of people who have died or remain unaccounted for expected to top 1,700.

8:36 pm: US Ambassador to Japan John Roos said that the US will continue to offer whatever support is needed to help Japan recover from a powerful earthquake that struck northeast Japan.

8:22 pm: Three people seeking refuge near the Fukushima nuclear plant were exposed to radiation: Kyodo News

8:08 pm: Japanese PM Naoto Kan said more than 3,000 people have been rescued since a powerful earthquake hit northeastern and eastern Japan: Kyodo News

Aerial video from town closest to Japan's mega-quake epicentre

8:04 pm: Switzerland announced it was sending a team of some 25 rescue and medical experts accompanied by nine sniffer dogs.

8:02 pm: Britain said it would be flying out 63 British search and rescue personnel to Japan in response to a request from Tokyo.

7:28 pm: A 6.0 magnitude quake occurred off Fukushima Prefecture, measuring lower 5 on the Japanese seismic scale in a coastal area of the prefecture: Kyodo News

7:11 pm: About 9,500 people are unaccounted for in the town of Minamisanriku in Miyagi Prefecture, prefectural officials said: Kyodo News

7:05 pm: The official death toll now stands at 574, with 586 people declared missing and 1,105 injured.

7:03 pm: Japanese authorities are making preparations to distribute iodine to residents in the area of both the Fukushima nuclear plants: IAEA

7:00 pm: Noriyuki Shikata, chief cabinet secretary for public relations for the Japanese PM says, "Blast was caused by accumulated hydrogen combined with oxygen in the space between container and outer structure. No damage to container."

6:24 pm: BBC's Damian Grammaticas describes the scenes of devastation in Sendai as "truly astonishing". He says, "Giant shipping containers have been swept inland and smashed against buildings, all around me are trees and rubble. The streets covered in mud that was swept inland. There are dozens and dozens of cars that were carried along, twisted and turned, and crushed by the wave. The gas and water have been cut off, fires are burning, and locals say hundreds of people died in this area."

6:00 pm: Japanese authorities have confirmed there was no explosion at the troubled No. 1 reactor of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant: Kyodo News

5.53pm: Indian foreign minister S M Krishna sends his condolences to Japan. Ministry of external affairs sets up special cell to monitor developments.

5.45pm: Summary of what World Nuclear News is saying: The plant has six reactors, three of which were in operation when the quake struck on Friday. All three shut down at once, as they are designed to, and automatically began removing residual heat with the help of emergency diesel generators. The generators stopped functioning after about an hour, possibly because of flooding caused by the tsunami. Plant owners Tokyo Electric Power Company immediately notified the government of an emergency. Work at the site is now centered on connecting portable power modules to replace the malfunctioning diesels..

5.36pm: World Nuclear News puts out status update on radiation leaks. Its website crashes, but is restores soon.

5.28pm: Aftershocks continue in Japan, while attention is focused on nuclear reactors. Texas researchers put out a map which tracks tremors in near real time.

4.33pm: Map from The New York Times, offering interactive information on earthquake and tsunami damage.

Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant affected by a massive earthquake is facing a possible meltdown.

More photos

4.30pm: Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency says serious damage to Fukushima nuclear reactor container unlikely.

4.26pm: 2.15 lakh tsunami-affected people now in emergency shelters.

4.22pm: Tsunami waves reach Africa, northern Chile. No damage reported.

4.20pm: Experts are downplaying risks from the explosion. Reuters quotes Ian Hore-Lacy, of the World Nuclear Association, as saying. "It is obviously a hydrogen explosion due to hydrogen igniting. If the hydrogen has ignited, then it is gone, it poses no further threat."

4.05pm: There are over 1,000 people unaccounted for -- either dead or missing, according to Japan's Kyodo News agency. 

4.04pm: All 81 aboard tsunami-swept ship rescued: Japanese team airlifts everyone on board to safety, CNN-IBN reports, quoting Jiji Press.

4.02pm: Sony, Toyota, Nissan and Honda are among firms to have closed plants due to the massive quake, reports BBC.

3.50pm: As officials and relavant agencies struggle to come to grips with the explosion atFukushima:  a) authorities have extended the evacuation area at the neighboring Fukushima; b) to a ten kilometer radius.

3.48pm: Blast the the plant may have been caused by a hydrogen explosion, say reports

3.47pm: BBC's nuclear expert Walt Patterson, an associate fellow with Chatham House, said the presence of caesium, one of the elements released when overheating of a nuclear plant causes core damage, does not pose any significant threat to public health. Meanwhile, as engineers try to establish if Fukushima is in meltdown, Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan has re-declared a state of emergency at the plant, and at the neighboring Fukushima. 

3.40pm: Official claims that the radiation levels at Fukushima-Daiichi was not serious is meeting with considerable speculation. The BBC in a report pointed out that officials have been less than honest with their "reassurances" in the past.

3.23pm: Japan's Meteorological Agency officials have told people living on the Pacific Coast to remain alert although there's slim chance of a 10m or higher tsunami now. 

3.17pm: Aftershocks continue. The USGS reports the latest one, magnitude 5.4, is just 25 km (15.5 miles) off the east coast of Honshu.

3.16pm: BBC reports, Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency is investigating the explosion at the Fukushima-Daiichi plant.

2.59pm: Video of the explosion

Fukushima nuclear plant explosion

2.57pm: The leak seems more serious than it first appeared. Kyodo News is now reporting that the amount leaking each hour is more than the maximum permitted in an entire year.

2.50pm: CNN reports that the Japan quake and resulting tsunami appear to have shifted the island of Japan by 8 feet (2.4 meters) and shifted the Earth on its axis. 

2.47pm: Reports say the walls and roof of the Fukushima nuclear plant have sustained heavy damage in the blast, and preliminary reports indicate increased levels of radiation. Japan's Nuclear Safety Commission has warned that the plant, 150 miles (240 km) north of Tokyo, may be approaching or experiencing meltdown.

2.45pm Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano has confirmed a radiation leak at the Fukushima nuclear plant

Reuters reports: Japan scrambled on Saturday to avert a disastrous meltdown at a nuclear plant damaged when a massive earthquake and tsunami struck the northeast coast, killing at least 1,300 people.

Jiji news agency said there had been an explosion at the stricken 40-year-old Daichi 1 reactor and TV footage showed vapour rising from the plant, which lies 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo.

The country's nuclear safety agency could not confirm the reported incident, which came as plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco) worked desperately to reduce pressures in the core of the reactor that -- if not contained -- could lead to a release of radiation into the atmosphere.

"An unchecked rise in temperature could cause the core to essentially turn into a molten mass that could burn through the reactor vessel," political risk information service Stratfor said in a report. "This may lead to a release of an unchecked amount of radiation into the containment building that surrounds the reactor."

NHK television said the outer structure of the building that houses the reactor appeared to have blown off, which could suggest the containment building had already been breached.

Earlier the operator released what it said was a tiny amount of radioactive steam to reduce the pressure and the danger was minimal because tens of thousands of people had already been evacuated from the vicinity.

Media reports estimate at least 1,300 people may have been killed by the 8.9 quake, the biggest since records began in Japan 140 years ago, and the 10-metre tsunami that swept ferociously inland after it struck.

Italy's National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology said the earth's axis had shifted 25 cm as a result of the quake and the U.S. Geological Survey said the main island of Japan had actually shifted 2.4 metres.

Japanese officials and experts have been at pains to say that while there would be radiation leaks, they would be very small and have dismissed suggestions of a repeat of a Chernobyl-type disaster.

THOUSANDS FLEE

Friday's tremor was so huge that thousands fled their homes from coastlines around the Pacific Rim, as far away as North and South America, fearful of a tsunami.

Most appeared to have been spared anything more serious than some high waves, unlike Japan's northeast coastline which was hammered by the huge tsunami that turned houses and ships into floating debris as it surged into cities and villages, sweeping aside everything in its path.

"I thought I was going to die," said Watauga Fuji, a 38-year-old sales representative in Koriyama, Fukushima, north of Tokyo and close to the area worst hit by the quake.

"Our furniture and shelves had all fallen over and there were cracks in the apartment building, so we spent the whole night in the car... Now we're back home trying to clean."

The unfolding natural disaster, which has been followed by dozens of aftershocks, prompted offers of search and rescue help from 50 countries.

The central bank said it would cut short a two-day policy review scheduled for next week to one day on Monday and promised to do its utmost to ensure financial market stability.

The disaster struck as the world's third-largest economy had been showing signs of reviving from an economic contraction in the final quarter of last year. It raised the prospect of major disruptions for many key businesses and a massive repair bill running into tens of billions of dollars.

The earthquake was the fifth most powerful to hit the world in the past century. It surpassed the Great Kant quake of Sept. 1, 1923, which had a magnitude of 7.9 and killed more than 140,000 people in the Tokyo area.

The 1995 Kobe quake caused $100 billion in damage and was the most expensive natural disaster in history.

(With input from agencies)