Update 3/12/11 @ 9:15 am EST:
Fukushima #1 Nuclear Power Plant has had an explosion. Click here
Update 3/11/11 @ 9:10pm EST:
Fukushima #1 Nuclear Power Plant is now at….
1000 Times the Normal Radiation Levels
—-End of update—-
The Earthquake that hit Japan this morning could bring “Catastrophic” results to the region. Japans’ Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant is having a tough time pumping in cooling water to the core.
Notice how close the plant is located to the coastline.
Click to enlarge the image
(CNN) — Workers at a nuclear power plant in north-central Japan are having trouble cooling the reactor and authorities have asked nearby residents to evacuate, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said at a news conference Friday.
The Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant was shut down after the earthquake that hit the country.
“This is a precautionary instruction for people to evacuate. There is no radioactive leakage at this moment outside of the facility,” he said. “At this moment there is no danger posed to the environment.”
Japan declared a state of atomic power emergency after the earthquake, the Kyodo News agency reported. The government is sending senior officials and a defense force team to the power plant, it said.
Edano said plant workers were having trouble generating sufficient electricity to pump water into the cooling system. They were using all available backup electricity, he said.
“The emergency shutdown has been conducted but the process of cooling down the reaction is currently not going as planned,” he said.
Residents living within a 3-kilometer radius of the plant were asked to evacuate, while residents living within a zone 3 to 10 kilometers away were asked to stay inside their homes.
About 2,000 people were affected by the evacuation order, according to the Kyodo News Service.
Edano urged people to remain calm, saying there is plenty of time to evacuate.
The plant was damaged by the 8.9-magnitude earthquake that has caused widespread destruction across the country.
Respectfully submitted by SilenceDogood2010 this Eleventh Day of March in the Year of our Lord, Two Thousand Eleven. Please join me in Prayer.
