Prior to the 8.9 magnitude earthquake that hit around Sendai May 10 this week. Smoke was seen coming from Fukushima a nuclear power plant where several workers were injured.
The reactor building at a nuclear power station in Japan has exploded after the massive earthquake damaged its cooling system.
Four workers suffered fractures in the blast and white smoke was seen pouring from the Fukushima Daiichi plant.
There were fears the reactor at the site could melt down and radiation levels around the plant had already reached 20 times the normal.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1365536/Japan-earthquake-tsunami-Nuclear-meltdown-explosion-vast-power-plant.html#ixzz1GOY02e7F
In response to the severity of the affect of the earthquake on the plant, Richard Black of BBC sums it up:
The term "meltdown" raises associations with two nuclear accidents in living memory: Three Mile Island in the US in 1979, and Chernobyl in Ukraine in 1986.
In both, excess heat in the reactor caused fuel to melt - and in the first, wider melting of the core. The question is whether the same thing has happened in Fukushima.
It appears that the reactor was shut down well before any melting occurred, which should reduce considerably the risk of radioactive materials entering the environment.
However, the detection of caesium isotopes outside the power station buildings could imply that the core has been exposed to the air.
Although Japan has a long and largely successful nuclear power programme, officials have been less than honest about some incidents in the past, meaning that official re-assurances are unlikely to convince everyone this time round.
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