An explosion rocked one of Japan's nuclear power plants, causing a portion of a building to crumble, sending white smoke billowing into the air and prompting Japanese officials to warn those in the vicinity to cover their mouths and stay indoors
In what may become the most serious nuclear power crisis since the Chernobyl disaster, the explosion followed large tremors at the Fukushima Daiichi No. 1 reactor Saturday afternoon, injuring four workers who were struggling to get the quake-stricken unit under control.
Earlier, Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency had warned that the reactor, whose cooling system had been crippled by the giant earthquake on Friday, could be nearing a meltdown and that two radioactive substances, cesium and radioactive iodine, had already been detected nearby.
The full extent of the blast remained unclear, but footage on Japanese television showed that the walls of the building housing the reactor crumpled, leaving a skeletal metal frame, according to the Associated Press.
Japanese authorities said they were still trying to confirm whether an explosion or something else caused the building collapse, but they widened an evacuation zone to areas within a 12.5 mile radius from the plant.
The unit, built 40 years ago by General Electric, is just one of five reactors severely imperiled by the earthquake and subsequent disruptions in the power supply the reactors used for cooling systems.
Earlier, Japanese authorities had declared a state of emergency for the five reactors at two nuclear power complexes as military and utility officials scrambled to tame rising pressure and radioactivity levels inside the units and stabilize the systems used to cool the plants' hot reactor cores.
Radiation had earlier surged to around 1,000 times the normal level in the control room of one reactor, Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) said. Meanwhile, Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Saturday that the temperatures at two other reactors at a different power plant were rising and that it had lost control over pressure in three reactors there.
The explosion at the reactor is certain to rattle confidence in nuclear power in Japan, victim of the only nuclear weapons explosions and where people have long been sensitized to the dangers of radioactive releases. In the United States, it will deal a severe blow to advocates of a nuclear power renaissance.
In Tokyo late Saturday afternoon, news of the explosion sparked a run on bottled water supplies. At a Tokyo convenience store that had been well-stocked earlier in the day, a line of a half-dozen customers were picking up the last bottles.
"I saw a chain letter e-mail from my friend telling about the explosion in Fukushima," said one shopper who, as is typical there, wanted only to give his first name, Masahito. "Right now they're saying it's a nuclear accident. I have been trying to buy enough water for one week, just in case, but I can't find it anywhere. I've already been to four places, including a supermarket."
The earthquake has led to the shutdown of 11 of the Japan's 55 nuclear power plants, representing nearly 20 percent of the country's capacity. It will deal an economic blow to Japan, which relies on nuclear power for one-third of its electricity generation, and could complicate economic recovery efforts.
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