(Breaking news: A meltdown may be under way at one of Fukushima Daiichi’s nuclear power reactors according to CNN)
The accident at the nuclear plant in Fukushima 1, northeast of Japan, reached level 4 out of 7 in the International Event Scale, announced this Saturday the Japanese Agency of nuclear and industrial safety.
In the INES scale, level 4 corresponds to the accidents which have no risk of a nuclear power plant outside and only local consequences, according to information from the International Agency for Atomic Energy.
The explosion in Fukushima 1 is considered the worst nuclear incident known to date in Japan.
In the account INES level 0 corresponds to the absence of anomalies and level 7, the highest, to a major accident. The scale uses the term anomaly for level 1 and the word incident to level 2 and 3. At level 4, the scale introduces the term accident.
Shortly before 16H00 on Saturday, there was an outbreak in Fukushima 1. The Government denied that the outbreak has been in the reactor core, so no major radioactive leak.
Reports of Japanese television reported that after the incident, four people were injured. In the morning it had said that the danger in nuclear plant was controlled by reducing the pressure in reactor.
Local media reported that the radioactivity levels are 20 times higher than normal. Authorities evacuated more than 40 000 residents of Fukushima, fearing a radioactive leak.
After the accident, the government spokesman Minister Yukio Edano, said that the explosion occurred at the Fukushima reactor 1 and caused no major radiation leak.
Edano explained that the explosion also damaged the steel shell that protects the reactor and that was due to a reaction between hydrogen and oxygen, and assured that the radiation level in the area has decreased.
However, the authorities have ordered the evacuation of people within a radius of 20 km around the plant, but Edano insisted that this is a measure of “prevention” and that there is no specific risk.
The incident happened at 15H36 local time, while a team tried to cool a reactor at the Fukushima plant 1, damaged by a massive earthquake on Friday.
The blast collapsed the roof and walls of the warehouse that houses the reactor tank and injured at least four people, which according to the company operates the plant, TEPCO, are not in serious condition.
The Nuclear Security Agency of Japan had already warned of the possibility of there being a fusion reactor with a high risk of releasing radioactivity.
The warning was issued after radioactive cesium was detected near the plant, apparently from the reactor.