JAPAN’S QUAKE (II)

JAPAN'S FEARS MOUNT WITH NUCLEAR PLANT BLAST

The Fukushima power plant's cooling system failed after Friday's massive earthquake. Residents flee the area. Nationwide, the death toll from the quake and tsunami could top 1,600.

Mark Magnier, Barbara Demick and Carol J. Williams

Los Angeles Times, March 12, 2011

Fears of a radiation leak intensified Saturday after an explosion at a nuclear power plant in northeastern Japan that had been damaged a day earlier by a tsunami and earthquake.

The walls of a building at the Fukushima power plant were blown off in the blast, leaving only a skeletal frame. Officials said four workers at the site received non-life-threatening injuries.

At least one reactor at the plant was already showing signs of a partial meltdown. Friday's magnitude 8.9 earthquake had prevented the plant 150 miles north of Tokyo from powering its water cooling system.

Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano in a press conference shortly after the explosion, which left the facility shrouded in plumes of gray smoke, said experts were still determining what caused the blast.

"We are doing everything to ensure the safety of residents living nearby," said Edano, the government's chief spokesman. "I'm sure residents [living nearby] are feeling unease.

People were reportedly fleeing the surrounding area and Japanese television was urging people to cover their faces with wet towels and not to expose any skin to the potentially contaminated air. An evacuation was ordered for area within a six-mile radius of the plant.

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