HUGE BLAST AT JAPAN NUCLEAR POWER PLANT

TOKYO, Japan - An explosion at a nuclear power station tore down the walls of one building Saturday as smoke poured out and Japanese officials said they feared the reactor could melt down following the failure of its cooling system in a powerful earthquake and tsunami.
It was not clear if the damaged building housed the reactor. Tokyo Power Electric Co., the utility that runs the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant, said four workers were injured but details were not immediately available.

• Footage on Japanese TV showed that the walls of one building had crumbled, leaving only a skeletal metal frame standing. Puffs of smoke were spewing out of the plant.
• The trouble began at the plant’s Unit 1 after Friday’s massive 8.9-magnitude earthquake and the tsunami it spawned knocked out power there. The disaster has killed hundreds of people and devastated the country’s northeastern coast, where rescuers began slowly arriving Saturday.

Adding to worries was the fate of nuclear power plants in the region. Japan has declared states of emergency for five nuclear reactors at two power plants after the units lost cooling ability. The most troubled one is facing meltdown, officials have said.
Pressure has been building up in the reactor — it’s now twice the normal level — and Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency told reporters Saturday that the plant was venting “radioactive vapors.” Officials said they were measuring radiation levels in the area.

• The reactor in trouble has already leaked some radiation: Operators have detected eight times the normal radiation levels outside the facility and 1,000 times normal inside Unit 1′s control room. Wind in the region is weak and headed northeast, out to sea, according to the Meteorological Agency.
• Ryohei Shiomi, an official with Japan’s nuclear safety commission, said that even if there was a meltdown, it wouldn’t affect people outside a six-mile (10-kilometer) radius — an assertion that might need revising if the situation deteriorates. Most of the 51,000 residents living within the danger area had been evacuated, he said.
• Meanwhile, the first wave of military rescuers began arriving by boats and helicopters.

President Barack Obama pledged U.S. assistance following what he called a potentially “catastrophic” disaster. He said one U.S. aircraft carrier was already in Japan and a second was on its way. A U.S. ship was also heading to the Marianas Islands to assist as needed, he said.

Source: Agency