ADELAIDENOW
Radiation spewing from damaged reactors at a crippled nuclear power plant in tsunami-ravaged northeastern Japan has been detected in Tokyo, in a dramatic escalation of the four-day-old catastrophe.
Higher than normal radiation levels were detected in the capital but the government says they're not high enough to affect human health.
Tens of thousands have been evacuated within a radius of 20-kilometres of the Fukushima No.1 plant - 250 kilometres northeast of Tokyo - after explosions and a fire ripped through the facility.
The prime minister has warned residents in that zone to stay inside or risk getting radiation sickness.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said this afternoon that a fourth reactor at the Fukushima Dai-ichi complex was on fire and that more radiation was released. The fire has since been extinguished but radiation is still pouring out.
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Prime Minister Naoto Kan warned that there are dangers of more leaks and told people living within 30km of the Fukushima Dai-ichi complex to stay indoors or face serious health risks.
Authorities are trying to evacuate residents downwind of the plant.
There was an explosion at the plant's Unit 1 reactor on Saturday followed by a blast at its Unit 3 reactor on Monday and third explosion at its Unit 2 reactor at 6.10am this morning, Japan time.
Water levels inside the plant's reactors have dropped precipitously, twice leaving the uranium fuel rods completely exposed and raising the threat of a catastrophic meltdown.
The troubles at the Fukushima Dai-ichi complex began when Friday's massive quake and tsunami in Japan's northeast knocked out power, crippling cooling systems needed to keep nuclear fuel from melting down.
International scientists have said there are serious dangers but not at the level of the 1986 blast in Chernobyl.
Japanese authorities are injecting seawater into the reactor as a coolant of last resort.
The cascading troubles in the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant compounded the immense challenges faced by the Tokyo government, already struggling to send relief to hundreds of thousands of people along the country's quake and tsunami-ravaged coast where at least 10,000 people are believed to have died.
The official death toll now has reached 2,414. The National Police Agency 3,118 were missing, with 1,885 injured. The official toll yesterday stood at 1,647.
Amid a mass rescue effort there were grim updates indicating severe loss of life along the battered east coast of Honshu island, where the monster waves destroyed or damaged more than 55,380 homes and other buildings.
More than 3,000 houses were flooded by the tsunami, while some 130 houses had been burned, police said, adding that there were 68 landslides.
More about Japan earthquake...
More about Japan earthquake...
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