Japan’s prime minister said the aftermath of Friday’s huge earthquake was the country’s “biggest crisis since the second world war” as fears grew that another explosion could hit the Fukushima nuclear plant.
And estimates of the size of the death toll from the quake and resulting tsunami continued to increase, with police estimating that 10,000 people could be dead in the Miyagi prefecture alone.
In a rallying speech to the Japanese people, Naoto Kan said: “The earthquake, tsunami and the nuclear incident have been the biggest crisis Japan has encountered in the 65 years since the end of world war two.
Advertisement
“We're under scrutiny on whether we, the Japanese people, can overcome this crisis.”
Kan’s words followed government warnings of a fresh threat of explosion from a nuclear unit at a power plant in the country’s earthquake-ravaged northeast.
A hydrogen explosion could occur at unit 3 of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear complex, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said.
It would follow a blast that took place yesterday at the same power plant as operators attempted to prevent a nuclear meltdown of another unit by injecting sea water into it.
Edano said the government could not rule out the possibility of an explosion, despite the risk of raising public concern. But he added that any explosion would not have a significant impact on human health.
Advertisement
However, a former adviser to the government on radiation told the BBC that an explosion could cause serious problems.
Dr Christopher Busby said: "Particularly concerning is the [Fukushima] number three reactor which I understand is in trouble now, because ... it runs on a different sort of fuel; it doesn't run on uranium, it runs on a mixed uranium plutonium fuel, and plutonium is an extremely serious hazard.
"If this stuff comes out then it's going to make what's happened so far, in terms of the tsunami damage, look a little bit like an entrée to the real course."
About 200,000 residents have been evacuated from the area within 12 miles of the site amid fears of a large-scale release of radiation.
The prime minister said the shutting down of the Fukushima plant and other power stations meant that electricity supplies were limited.
Advertisement
He added that from a programme of rolling power cuts - which would also affect water and gas supplies and some medical facilities – would begin on Monday.
And more troops will be brought in to help with rescue work in the north-east coastal region – army numbers there will double to 100,000, and 250,000 police officers and other relief workers will join them.
In another move to deal with the crisis, the Bank of Japan will on Monday announce an emergency "quake budget" as it prepares to pump billions of yen into the economy to prevent the disaster derailing the country's fragile economic recovery.
News agency Kyodo reported that more than across the country 20,000 buildings had been destroyed or badly damaged. And 2 million households were without power, and 1.4 million without drinking water, Japan's ministry of health, labour and welfare said.
Japanese scientists have recalculated the strength of Friday's undersea earthquake at 9.0, up from 8.9, making it the most powerful on record to hit Japan.
Advertisement
It had almost 1,450 times the destructive force of the quake that wrecked the city of Kobe in 1995.