US Deploys Nuclear Experts to Japan

Japanese engineers continue work to avoid meltdown at two nuclear power stations.


An explosion rocked a nuclear power station in Fukushima, Japan, on Saturday.

The explosion did not damage the core reactor of the plant and radiation levels were falling.

The massive 8.9-magnitude quake damaged two power plants' cooling systems and workers are using workarounds to keep the nuclear cores cool.

Two US nuclear experts are part of a broader US aid team sent to the disaster zone.





The commission has activated "its Maryland-based headquarters Operations Center since the beginning of the emergency in Japan, and is operating on a 24-hour basis," the statement added.

The explosion at one of Japan's nuclear plants was not in the reactor itself, but rather was due to a failure in the pumping system as a crew was working to cool the reactor and prevent a meltdown, according to news reports.

The next step for workers at the Fukushima Daiichi atomic plant will be to, over the next two days, fill the container surrounding the reactor with seawater to return the reactor's temperature to safe levels, CNN reported Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano as saying on Saturday.

The explosion and feared meltdown exposed the scale of the disaster facing Japan after a massive quake and tsunami on Friday left 1,000 feared dead.

Reactor cooling systems failed at two plants after the record 8.9-magnitude earthquake hit. Radiation levels, which had been rising sharply, have fallen since the explosion rocked the plant, according to Kyodo News Agency. Edano said there was no immediate danger, but an area about 12.5 miles around the reactor was being evacuated as a precaution, CNN reported.


The earthquake unleashed a terrifying 10-meter (33-foot) wave that tore through coastal towns and cities, destroying all in its path and leaving thousands of people missing.

Smoke billowed from the Fukushima No. 1 atomic plant, about 250 kilometres (160 miles) northeast of Tokyo, after the explosion at the aging facility destroyed the walls and roof, reports said. The blast reportedly left several workers with non-life-threatening injuries.



More than 215,000 people were in emergency shelters, police said.

























But mostly the picture was one of utter devastation.







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