This morning a major quake with a magnitude of 8.9 hit the east coast of Japan, which is the strongest earthquake in this region on record.
Shortly thereafter a massive tsunami hit the Sendai region and resulted in a massive flooding of the surrounding areas. Due to the location of Japan’s cities, which are mostly close to the coastline, this Tsunami hase done extensive damage.
Many tsunami waves still hit the coast of Japan.
While there are approximately 600 casualties confirmed yet, many factories, houses and even a nuclear power plant caught fire as a result of the quake. The tsunami makes it nearly impossible to reach these fires and they therefore can spread easy.
Reportedly four nuclear power plants have been shut down as protection measures.
Aftershocks are still expected throughout the day.
It is reported, that some 3.9 million Japanese households are without power at the moment.
Update 1: Japanese government admits problems cooling nuclear power plants, but they do not expect radiocative leakage. An emergancy state took effect to properly cope with this problem.
Update 2: Tsunami will hit Hawaii, Australia and South America later today.
Update 3: Area surrounding Fukushima nuclear power plant will be evacuated immediately.
Update 4:The nuclear power plant in Fukuschima is only cooled by an emergency power supply, which only lasts a couple of hours more. A nuclear meltdown might happen, once the power supply fails and the reactor can no longer be cooled down according to a report by the Associated Press. Various sources say, that it might be as disastrous as Chernobyl in 1986.
The Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety in Germany got word from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which confirms this. Japan extended the evacuation zone to five kilometers. Thousands have already been evacuated.
The previous chief constructing engineer of Vattenfall Lars-Olov Höglund, told the German magazine Der Spiegel that once the emergency power supply shuts down and therefore the coolings system fails completely, “everything is over”.
Update 5: NHK News station reports that the Japanese government issued another tsunami warning.
Update 6: Explosion hits nuclear power plant Fukushima 1. Walls collapsed.
Watch a video of the explosion below.
Update 7: Still unclear what is going on in the Fukushima 1 nuclear power plant. The Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan denied a meltdown, while NHK World reported that radiation levels are elevated and the evacuation zone was extended to 20 kilometres.
Update 8 : An official of Japan’s nuclear and industrial safety agency told CNN on Sunday that a meltdown might be taking place right now at one of the Fukushima nuclear power reactors.
Update 9 : Japan issued state of emergency at the Onagawa nuclear power plant because of elevated radiation in the surrounding area. It is located in the Miyagi Prefecture, 160 kilometers north of Fukushima 1.
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If you want to get the latest on this disaster, download the NHK WORLD TV Live application for iPhone, or simply watch the CNN International stream right here. Both stations cover the situation extensively.
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