Second explosion at Japan nuclear plant
Nine people are reported injured after a second explosion at the Fukushima nuclear plant in the east of Japan's Honsu island earlier today. On Saturday a similar blast hit the N° 1 reactor at the power station caused by the devestating earthquake and tsunami believed to have killed over 10,000.
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"What we understand is that the blast occurred in the midst of procedures that are now ongoing to keep the temperatures under control in the reactor," said correspondent Stephen Phelan reporting from Honsu island.
Some useful links after the disaster:
France’s embassy in Japan – contact numbers and email addresses
The plant's operator Tepco is saying that the blast was most probably a hydrogen explosion.
Authorities have declared an exclusion zone within a 20 kilometre radius of the plant and evacuated 210,000 people.
Phelan says there is growing concern for radiation levels that have reached "500 micro sieverts per hour" at reactor N° 1 and N° 3 .
"That's basically as much radiation being released per hour as people would normally be expected to be exposed to in a year. That sounds worrying [...] but apparently we're currently not talking about a major health crisis," explains Phelan.
Tokyo's stock market also plunged more than six per cent in afternoon trade as investors absorbed the impact, including power outages and plant shutdowns.
It will be a huge blow to the economy which has been ailing for the past two decades.
Fears also remain that there could be powerful aftershocks.
The quake and tsunami on YouTube:
Tsunami hits north-east Japan, NHK
Wave hits Sendai airport
Earthquake compilation
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