Japan earthquake: Threat of meltdowns at four nuclear power plants

JAPANESE authorities are battling the threat of multiple reactor meltdowns at four nuclear power plants.
After an explosion on Saturday and reports of partial nuclear meltdowns at the Fukishima Number One Nuclear Power Plant and the nearby Fukushima Number Two plant, authorities today reported emergencies at two more nuclear facilities.
At the Tokai No. 2 nuclear power plant, which is only 120 kilometre north of Tokyo, the cooling pump stopped working, while at the Onagawa nuclear power plant, in the Miyagi Prefecture, a state of emergency was declared because of excessive radiation levels.The incidents underlined the precipitous situation at the country's nuclear plants and particularly at the crippled Fukishima facility, where government officials admitted they feared meltdowns occurred within three of the site's reactors at the No. 1 plant and confirmed that radiation had leaked out.
Sources indicated to Fox News that the Fukishima No. 2 plant could also be in trouble with temperatures in three of its four reactors getting extremely high.
A spokesman for the Tokai plant, which suffered a nuclear accident in 1999, said that although a cooling pump had failed, a back-up pump was working and cooling the reactor.
The IAEA said that about 200,000 people had been evacuated from a 19 kilometre zone around the two Fukushima plants that house a total of 10 reactors.
The UN's nuclear watchdog also said four people were injured in a huge blast at the Fukushima No. 1 site Saturday and that one person was killed and four injured in a crane accident at the other plant nearby.
In all, 22 people were hospitalized after being exposed to radioactivity, according to AFP, although it was not immediately clear to what degree they were exposed and what their condition was. Local media cited by The Wall Street Journal said that up to 190 people might have been affected by radiation.