JAPAN QUAKE:- SECOND EXPLOSION

Japan quake: -Second explosion

                

 A second explosion has hit a Japanese nuclear plant that was damaged in Friday's earthquake, but officials said the reactor core was still intact .A huge column of smoke billowed from Fukushima Daiichi's reactor 3, two days after a blast hit reactor 1.The latest explosion, said to have been caused by a hydrogen build-up, injured 11 people, one of them seriously. Soon afterwards, the government said a third reactor at the plant had lost its cooling system. Water levels were now falling at reactor 2, which is to be doused with sea water, said government spokesman Yukio Edano.  A similar cooling system breakdown preceded the explosions at reactors 1 and 3.Japanese officials are playing down any health risk, but the US said it had moved one of its aircraft carriers from the area after detecting low-level radiation 100 miles (160km) offshore.

       What should have been a road was covered in broken branches, a squashed tractor and lots of electricity cables that had been brought down. The destruction goes on and on. The seashore was in the distance behind a row of trees. Here the waves toppled houses; they lie at crazy angles. Trees have been smashed into the buildings. A motorcycle lies twisted and bent .Inside the houses, the furniture has been turned to matchsticks, possessions tossed everywhere, and on a few walls are portraits with the faces of those who once lived here Technicians have been battling to cool reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi plant since Friday, following the quake and tsunami.

Two thousand bodies have been found on the shores of Miyagi prefecture, Japanese media are reporting. The central bank said it would pump 15 trillion yen ($182bn; £113bn) into the economy to prop up markets, but the Nikkei slumped more than 6%. Prime Minister Naoto Kan postponed planned rolling power cuts, saying they may not be needed if householders could conserve energy. Japanese police have so far confirmed 1,597 deaths, but the final toll is expected to be much higher. Tens of thousands of people has been evacuated from the area around Fukushima Daiichi plant. At least 22 people were said to be undergoing treatment for radiation exposure.

Prof. John Kurakar

Click to playEarlier, the prime minister said the situation at the nuclear plant was alarming, and the earthquake had thrown Japan into "the most severe crisis since World WaThe government advised people not to go