Japan's nuclear safety agency has reportedly said that another hydrogen explosion in a Japanese nuclear power plant has led to the failure of the third reactor at the plant. The hydrogen blast occurred at reactor number 3 at Fukushima's number 1 plant on Monday, Japan's Kyodo News reported. The first explosion at the same plant took place on the No. 1 reactor on Saturday. Japanese officials had been injecting seawater into overheating nuclear reactors on Sunday in an attempt to relieve pressure at the plant. The excess heat may now have deformed the third reactor but not melted it down, the officials say. A "meltdown" is a condition that happens when nuclear fuel rods melt in the reactor. There are also concerns of another hydrogen explosion at other reactors in the facility, similar to the one on Saturday that blew off part of the building which housed a reactor at the same plant.
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Smoke rises from Fukushima Daiichi power plant's Unit 1 in Okumamachi, Fukushima prefecture, Japan, on Saturday, March 12, 2011. |
An evacuation area of 12 miles (20 km) around the plant has been in place since Saturday after being expanded from 6 miles (10 km). The blasts happened on Saturday and Monday in the wake of an 8.9 magnitude earthquake and the subsequent tsunami. Over a dozen people have been injured in the explosions but Japanese authorities say radiation levels are below legal limits. Japan has been struggling to cope with the aftermath of Friday's disaster that devastated the country's north. Some 3,600 people have been confirmed dead and thousands more are still missing. Meanwhile, Asian shares have fallen as investors expect the disaster to take its toll on the world's third biggest economy. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index has declined more than 3% and the Nikkei has plunged over 6%.
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