FUKUSHIMA, Japan, March 14, (Agencies): Japan scrambled to avert a meltdown at a stricken nuclear plant on Monday after a hydrogen explosion at one reactor and exposure of fuel rods at another, just days after a devastating earthquake and tsunami that killed at least 10,000 people.
Roads and rail, power and ports have been crippled across much of Japan’s northeast and estimates of the cost of the multiple disasters have leapt to as much as $170 billion. Analysts said the economy could even tip back into recession.
Japanese stocks closed down more than 7.5 percent, wiping $287 billion off market capitalisation in the biggest fall since the height of the global financial crisis in 2008.
Rescue workers combed the tsunami-battered region north of Tokyo for survivors and struggled to care for millions of people without power and water in what Prime Minister Naoto Kan has dubbed his country’s worst crisis since World War Two.

Officials say at least 10,000 people were likely killed in the 8.9-magnitude earthquake and tsunami that followed it. Kyodo news agency reported that 2,000 bodies had been found on Monday in two coastal towns alone.
“It’s a scene from hell, absolutely nightmarish,” said Patrick Fuller of the International Red Cross Federation from the northeastern coastal town of Otsuchi.
“The situation here is just beyond belief, almost everything has been flattened. The government is saying that 9,500 people, more than half of the population could have died and I do fear the worst.”
The big fear at the Fukushima nuclear complex, 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo, is of a major radiation leak.
The complex has already seen explosions at two of its reactors on Saturday and on Monday, which sent a huge plume of smoke billowing above the plant.
Yukiya Amano, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said the reactor vessels of nuclear power plants affected by the disaster remained intact, and so far, the amount of radiation that had been released was limited.

Safety
“The Japanese authorities are working as hard as they can, under extremely difficult circumstances, to stabilise the nuclear power plants and ensure safety,” Amano said in a statement.
But nuclear accident, the worst since the Chernobyl disaster in the Ukraine in 1986, sparked criticism that authorities were ill-prepared and the threat that could pose to the country’s nuclear power industry.
The plant operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) , said fuel rods at the No. 2 reactor were fully exposed, which could lead to the rods melting down.
The rods, normally surrounded by water, were partially exposed earlier after the engine-powered pump pouring in this water ran out of fuel. TEPCO said it was preparing to pump more cooling water on the rods.

There were earlier partial meltdowns of the fuel rods at both the No. 1 and the No. 3 reactors, where the explosions had occurred, and a TEPCO official described the situation in the No. 2 reactor was even worse than in the other units.
A meltdown raises the risk of damage to the reactor vessel and a possible radioactive leak.
“If cooling water is not returned, the core should melt in a matter of hours,” said Edwin Lyman, senior scientist for global security programs at the Union of Concerned Scientists which lobbies for stronger security and safety measures at nuclear plants.
Crucially, officials said the thick walls around the radioactive cores of the damaged reactors appeared to be intact after the earlier hydrogen blast.
But the government warned those still in the 20-km (13-mile) evacuation zone to stay indoors. TEPCO said 11 people had been injured in the blast.
Kyodo said 80,000 people had been evacuated from the zone, joining more than 450,000 other evacuees from quake and tsunami-hit areas in the northeast.

“Everything I’ve seen says that the containment structure is operating as it’s designed to operate. It’s keeping the radiation in and it’s holding everything in, which is the good news,” said Murray Jennex, a nuclear expert at San Diego State University.
“This is nothing like a Chernobyl ... At Chernobyl (in Ukraine in 1986) you had no containment structure — when it blew, it blew everything straight out into the atmosphere.”
Nuclear experts said it was probably the first time in the industry’s 57-year history that sea water has been used to cool the fuel rods, a sign of how close Japan may be to a major accident.
“Injection of sea water into a core is an extreme measure,” Mark Hibbs of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “This is not according to the book.”
Nuclear fuel accounts for 30 percent of Japan’s electricity. Of Japan’s 54 reactors, 11 have been shut down by the quake.

Bodies
A tide of bodies washed up along Japan’s coastline Monday, overwhelming crematoriums, exhausting supplies of body bags and adding to the spiraling humanitarian, economic and nuclear crisis after the massive earthquake and tsunami.
Millions of people faced a fourth night without water, food or heating in near-freezing temperatures along the northeast coast devastated by Friday’s disasters. Meanwhile, a third reactor at a nuclear power plant lost its cooling capacity and its fuel rods were fully exposed, raising fears of a meltdown. The stock market plunged over the likelihood of huge losses by Japanese industries including big names such as Toyota and Honda.
On the coastline of Miyagi prefecture, which took the full force of the tsunami, a Japanese police official said 1,000 bodies were found scattered across the coastline. Kyodo, the Japanese news agency, reported that 2,000 bodies washed up on two shorelines in Miyagi.
In one town in a neighboring prefecture, the crematorium was unable to handle the large number of bodies being brought in for funerals.

“We have already begun cremations, but we can only handle 18 bodies a day. We are overwhelmed and are asking other cites to help us deal with bodies. We only have one crematorium in town,” Katsuhiko Abe, an official in Soma, told The Associated Press.
While the official death toll rose to nearly 1,900, the discovery of the washed-up bodies and other reports of deaths suggest the true number is much higher. In Miyagi, the police chief has said 10,000 people are estimated to have died in his province alone.
The outspoken governor of Tokyo, Shintaro Ishihara, told reporters Monday that the disaster was “punishment from heaven” because Japanese have become greedy.
Across Japan, most people opt to cremate their dead. With so many bodies, the government on Monday waived a rule requiring permission first from local authorities before cremation or burial to speed up funerals, said Health Ministry official Yukio Okuda.
“The current situation is so extraordinary, and it is very likely that crematoriums are running beyond capacity,” said Okuda. “This is an emergency measure. We want to help quake-hit people as much as we can.”

Friday’s double tragedy has caused unimaginable deprivation for people of this industrialized country — Asia’s richest — which hasn’t seen such hardship since World War II. In many areas there is no running water, no power and four- to five-hour waits for gasoline. People are suppressing hunger with instant noodles or rice balls while dealing with the loss of loved ones and homes.
“People are surviving on little food and water. Things are simply not coming,” said Hajime Sato, a government official in Iwate prefecture, one of the hardest hit.
Sato said deliveries of food and other supplies were just 10 percent of what is needed. Body bags and coffins were running so short that the government may turn to foreign funeral homes for help, he said.
“We have requested funeral homes across the nation to send us many body bags and coffins. But we simply don’t have enough,” he said. “We just did not expect such a thing to happen. It’s just overwhelming.”

Help
Hundreds of foreign rescue workers are assisting quake and tsunami victims in Japan, but the United Nations does not plan to mount a bigger relief operation unless requested, UN aid officials said on Monday.
Fifteen teams, many equipped with search dogs and heavy lifting equipment, are now deployed in stricken northeast areas, with the largest from Russia, South Korea and the United States.
“United Nations action will be very targeted, according to needs. This is the most disaster-prepared country in the world,” Elisabeth Byrs, spokeswoman of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), told Reuters.
“Japan is responding to three emergencies — the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear threat — and is doing very well,” she said.

Japan is scrambling to avert a meltdown at a stricken nuclear plant after an explosion at one reactor and exposure of fuel rods at another, days after the devastating earthquake and tsunami that killed at least 10,000 people.
Millions in the tsunami-battered region north of Tokyo were without power and water in what Prime Minister Naoto Kan has dubbed his country’s worst crisis since World War Two.
Seven UN disaster relief officials have been dispatched to the three affected provinces and are coordinating closely with local Japanese officials about needs, Byrs added.
US warships, including the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan, have arrived to ramp up relief efforts.
A 102-member South Korean rescue team departed for Japan on Monday aboard three air force C-130 cargo planes. They were bound for Fukushima, where the earthquake-stricken nuclear plant is located, 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo.
The World Health Organisation, a UN agency, said there was little public health risk from the nuclear plant so far.

“As far as we understand, the amount of (leaked) radioactive material is minimal. Based on what we know, we believe the current public health risk is small,” WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl told Reuters.
Environmental experts who form a specialised joint unit of OCHA and the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) are closely monitoring the nuclear crisis but have not been dispatched.
“They are on stand-by and ready to assist should Japan request assistance,” OCHA’s Byrs said.
China stands willing to give Japan more help, Premier Wen Jiabao said, expressing sympathy for the stricken country with which Beijing has often had icy relations. He noted that Japan sent aid to China when it was hit by a quake in 2008 that killed more than 80,000 people.
Among other countries sending aid, Australia has sent rescuers and offered field hospitals, Thailand is sending clothing and 15,000 tonnes of rice, and Bangladesh has offered assistance including rescuers and a medical team.
US President Barack Obama on Monday issued a new pledge of support for Japan, saying he was “heartbroken” at the toll of “multiple disasters” after an earthquake and tsunami.
Obama reiterated American support for the key US Pacific ally at the start of a speech on education at a school in the Washington suburbs.

“I continue to be heartbroken at the images of devastation in Japan,” Obama said.
“I have said directly to the Prime Minister of Japan (Naoto Kan) ... that the United States will continue to offer any assistance we can, as Japan recovers from multiple disasters,” Obama said.
“We will stand with the people of Japan in the difficult days ahead.”
The United States has sent several disaster teams to Japan to help look for any survivors from the quake and the monstrous tsunami that swept ashore on Friday. It is feared that 10,000 people may have died.
The United States, which has nearly 50,000 military personnel stationed in Japan, now also has two aircraft carriers deployed to the country.
Tokyo had so far asked one of the ships, the USS Ronald Reagan, to help refuel Japanese rescue helicopters, and to help transport Japanese troops to affected areas.
The ship on Monday adjusted its position after detecting low levels of radiation from nuclear power plants badly affected by the earthquake.
Seventh Fleet officials said that the radiation level was so low that it presented no health risk — less than one month of exposure to natural background radiation from rocks, soil and the sun.
US Navy helicopters were also flying relief supplies to quake and tsunami survivors.
Washington has also urged Americans to avoid travel to Japan following the devastating earthquake and tsunami that hit the country.

Iodine
Japan has provided 230,000 units of stable iodine to evacuation centres as a precautionary measure in the country’s nuclear emergency, the UN atomic watchdog said on Monday.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), citing information it had received from Japanese authorities, said about 185,000 residents in areas near nuclear power plants affected by Friday’s quake had been evacuated by March 13.
Iodine can be used to help protect against thyroid cancer in the case of radioactive exposure in a nuclear accident.
“Japan has distributed 230,000 units of stable iodine to evacuation centres from the area around Fukushima Daiichi and Fukushima Daini nuclear power plants, according to officials,” the IAEA said in a statement on its Facebook page.
“The iodine has not yet been administered to residents; the distribution is a precautionary measure in the event that this is determined to be necessary,” it said.
The Fukushima nuclear complex, 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo, has already seen explosions at two of its reactors on Saturday and on Monday, which sent a huge plume of smoke billowing above the plant.
Jiji news agency said fuel rods at the No. 2 reactor had been entirely exposed and a fuel rod meltdown could not be ruled out.
The IAEA said it had been told by Japan that the No. 2 unit at Fukushima “has experienced decreasing coolant levels in the reactor core. Officials have begun to inject sea water into the reactor to maintain cooling of the reactor core.
“Sea water injections into Units 1 and 3 were interrupted yesterday due to a low level in a seawater supply reservoir, but seawater injections have now been restored at both units.”
Winds have been moving away from the Japanese coast to the east since the incident began and “predictions call for the same patterns to persist for the next three days,” the IAEA added.