By Miwa Suzuki, AAP March 15, 2011, 3:03 pm
Japan quake live report
0356 GMT: Flights from Beijing and Shanghai to Tokyo on Air China were cancelled on Tuesday afternoon and in the evening, the BBC reports.
0350 GMT: Tokyo shares plunged 11.03 percent as Japan's nuclear crisis escalated
0347 GMT: The French embassy in Tokyo has withdrawn a news item on its website saying a low level radioactive wind could reach Tokyo in 10 hours. Embassy officials say the report was unconfirmed and that the winds have changed.
0326 GMT: A fire at the Fukushima nuclear plant has apparently been extinguished, media reports quoted the power station operator as saying.
0322 GMT: Radiation is 400 times the annual legal limit near Fukushima's reactor 3, the Kyodo news agency reports.
0230 GMT: The United States nuclear regulatory commission has sent eight additional experts and managers to Japan to help respond to its damaged nuclear power plants.
0221 GMT: Radiation levels around reactors now a threat to human health: Japan govt
0212 GMT: People between 20-30 km around the Fukushima reactor should stay indoors: the Prime Minister said.
0208 GMT: A fire has broken out at the number-four reactor at the quake-hit Fukushima No. 1 atomic power plant and radiation levels have risen considerably, Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan said.
0116 GMT: Some workers have been evacuated from the number-two reactor at the Fukushima No.1 nuclear power plant, according to Tokyo Electric Power Co. "We have moved our staff to a safer area," except for those working to cool the reactor, the TEPCO spokesman said.
0110 GMT: The death toll from Friday's earthquake and tsunami that flattened much of Japan's northeast coast topped 2,400, police said Tuesday. The National Police Agency said 2,414 people are confirmed dead and 3,118 missing, with 1,885 injured in the disaster which struck on Friday afternoon. The official toll yesterday stood at 1,647.
0045 GMT: The seal around a reactor at a quake-damaged Japanese nuclear power plant does not appear to have been holed, the plant operator said Tuesday, following an explosion at the plant. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told reporters earlier that the suppression pool of the number-two reactor at the Fukushima No.1 plant appeared to have been damaged.
0035 GMT: The Bank of Japan has pumped five trillion yen into the financial system to soothe money markets shaken by Japan's biggest ever earthquake, a devastating tsunami and a nuclear emergency.
0000 GMT: A huge explosion hit another reactor at an earthquake-damaged Japanese nuclear power plant early Tuesday, the third blast since Saturday, the plant operator said. "There was a huge explosion" between 6:00 am (2100 GMT Monday) and 6:15 am at the number-two reactor of Fukushima No.1 nuclear power plant, a Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) spokesman said.
Japan nuke reactor spews harmful radiation
Radiation levels near a quake-stricken nuclear plant are now harmful to human health, Japan's government says after explosions and a fire at the facility.
"There is no doubt that unlike in the past, the figures are the level at which human health can be affected," said chief government spokesman Yukio Edano.
Tens of thousands have already been evacuated from a zone within a radius of 20km from the Fukushima No.1 plant, 250 kilometres northeast of Tokyo.
But Prime Minister Naoto Kan urged people living within 10km of the exclusion zone around the plant to stay indoors.
Early on Tuesday a blast hit the number-two reactor there. And Edano later said there was also an explosion which started a fire at the number-four reactor.
Although the number-four reactor was shut for maintenance when the quake and tsunami struck last Friday, "spent nuclear fuel in the reactor heated up, creating hydrogen and triggered a hydrogen explosion".
He said radioactive substances were leaked along with the hydrogen.
"Please keep in mind that what is burning is not nuclear fuel itself," Edano said. "We'll do our best to put out or control the fire as soon as possible."
Similar hydrogen blasts had hit the number-one and number-three reactors on Saturday and Monday. Buildings housing four of the six reactors at the plant, which opened in 1971, have now been hit by explosions.
Edano said radioactive substances might spread outside the 20-30km area but would dissipate the farther they spread.
It was still unclear whether the container sealing the number-two reactor had been breached.
The plant operator initially told the nuclear safety agency that it had not been holed, but later said it was still checking for any breach.
Japan is frantically battling a nuclear emergency after Friday's massive earthquake and tsunami cut power to the 40-year-old plant and knocked out cooling systems.
Officials have struggled to prevent meltdowns at the damaged reactors, saying fuel rods may have been critically damaged by overheating.
But they have not reported the kind of radiation leakage that would accompany a major meltdown.
The continuing nuclear crisis has unnerved regional residents already struggling with the aftermath of the quake and tsunami.
"There are very few people out in the streets", said Mako Sato, a cafe waitress in the town of Miharumachi just outside the evacuation zone. "They are either staying at home or in the evacuation centres.
"Since conditions surrounding the nuclear plant are so uncertain, I am worried. Food supplies are low and all that customers talk about is the quake and how scary it is, because we still feel aftershocks."
An employee at the Hotel Chisun in Koriyama said there were no visible signs of panic despite the nuclear crisis.
"Everyone is reacting calmly. But due to safety concerns after the quake we aren't accepting new business," the employee said. "
"There is very little food and convenience stores nearby are all closed. We are doing the best we can with our reserves."
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