A ferocious tsunami spawned by one of the largest earthquakes ever recorded slammed Japan's eastern coast Friday, killing hundreds of people as it swept away boats, cars and homes while widespread fires burned out of control.
About 2000 bodies have reportedly been found on the shores of Miyagi prefecture. The grim development, reported by Kyodo news agency, comes as Japan's weather agency said there was no current risk of another deadly wave hitting Japan's north-eastern coast, following earlier TV reports of a three-metre wave heading for the coast. About 1000 people were found washed up on the shores of Ojika Peninsulain Miyagi, while another 1000 were seen in the town of Minamisanriku, the agency said, adding that in Minamisanriku authorities have been unable to contact 10,000 people - more than half of the population living there. Japan has been battling to control two overheating reactors at the ageing Fukushima plant after the cooling systems were knocked out by Friday's quake. The latest blaze erupted in the outer housing of the containment vessel at the No. 4 unit at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear complex, said Hajimi Motujuku, a spokesman for the plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co. Japan's nuclear safety agency also confirmed the fire, whose cause was not immediately known. On Tuesday, a fire broke out in the same reactor's fuel storage pond ? an area where used nuclear fuel is kept cool ? causing radioactivity to be released into the atmosphere. The radiation leak caused the government to order 140,000 people living within 20 miles (30 kilometers) of the plant to seal themselves indoors to avoid exposure, and authorities declared a ban on commercial air traffic through the area. Worries about radiation rippled through Tokyo and other areas far beyond that cordon. The stock market plunged for a second day, dropping 10 percent.
The UN weather agency said that winds were currently blowing radioactive material towards the ocean, and that there were "no implications" for Japan or countries nearby. France's Nuclear Safety Authority said the disaster now equated to a six on the seven-point international scale for nuclear accidents, ranking the crisis second only in gravity to Chernobyl. Europe's energy commissioner Guenther Oettinger dubbed the nuclear disaster an "apocalypse", saying Tokyo had almost lost control of events at the Fukushima power plant.
Author Resource:-
Damien Quarters Travels the world to help reporting on current affairs. He also manufactures shipping containers for sale to countries in need. He also designs accommodation units to use as temporary accommodation.
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