NEWS: Meltdown Alert at Japanese Reactor

Technicians are battling to stabilise a third reactor at a quake-stricken Japanese nuclear plant, which has been rocked by a second blast in three days.

The fuel rods inside reactor 2 at the Fukushima Daiichi plant have been fully exposed on two separate occasions, raising fears of a meltdown.

Sea water is being pumped into the reactor to try to prevent overheating.

A cooling system breakdown preceded explosions at the plant's reactor 3 on Monday and reactor 1 on Saturday.

The latest hydrogen blast injured 11 people, one of them seriously. It was felt 40km (25 miles) away and sent a huge column of smoke into the air.

The outer building around the reactor was largely destroyed.

But as with the first explosion, Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) said the thick containment walls shielding the reactor cores remained intact. It also said radiation levels outside were still within legal limits.

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You do know that these reactors in particular are built so that they can survive a direct nucleur blast, right?

Look how they faired against an earthquake, that doesn't leave one with much confidence.

The Earthquake is why the reactors are having issues.

Tell the News people that, Trick.

The media'll do anything to get a story, so expect them to bend truth.

Actually the Japanese government are hushing up the seriousness of the event. It is to be expected in a world that lies.

That doesn't stop people exaggerating news leaked out.

It is human nature to exaggerate, besides they are scared. Let them off on this one.

This is BBC News, not a Japanese station.

I know, don't forget a lot of people here are scared. It makes them realize their own mortality which affects everyone.

Regardless of whether or not the situation with the reactor is as serious as the media says it is or not, it should be treated as seriously as possible. The media might be over-reacting, but better people be prepared in case something worse happens.

What I found disturbing was that I was watching an interview of the physicist Michio Kaku said that even if there was a massive earthquake, safe guards within the nuclear facility should have prevented this situation from occurring, meaning one of the major safeguards in the plants failed.

Yes, so is it coincidence or an excuse?

Also, nucleur reactors have automatic safety features to stop the reaction should anything happen

So is it simple human error? Maybe they chose the earthquake as an excuse to hide the truth? To be honest i guess we will never know the full extent.

Honestly, possible nuclear fallouts scare the hell out of me

My friends and a few people in my classes were talking about how the nuclear power plant might "spawn WWIII" or something super-exaggerated like that. I see it as a possibility, although it is super-super unlikely.

Japan just seems to be in a bit of luck these days.

Japan lies along one of the most dangerous faults on Earth. The earthquakes in Japan are routinely larger than those in say California, Turkey, China, Central and Southern America - most of Europe is fairll safe Earthquake wise (with the exception of Central and Soutern Italy). As a consequence, if an Earthquake hits any in the world, Japan is arguably the safest place to experience should a thing.

That being said, you can be as prepared as you want or can be when an Earthquake hits, the science could be as correct as possible and you can throw as much money as you wish into safeguarding the infrastructure and buildings, the unforseeable still occurs.

I for one believe that the Earthquake caused some sort of damage within the grounds of the Fukishima Nuclear Plant that the experts just could not have predicted, or some freak damage occurred as a result.

I for one would rather prepare the world for the worst as opposed to leave everyone in the dark... the Japanese could hardly cover up any explosions since the world's media was already in the area. If it was hukman error, the timing in itself is amazing... not every news story is part of a conspiracy, though I have no doubt that some are.

EDIT: Oh dear: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-12740843
Getting worse apparently.... a third explosion and radiation has reached dangerous levels.

Also, the Earthquake did not cause most of the deaths, it was the Tsunami.

So it looks like a meltdown is inevitable then. God help them all.

If they go off, I would expect that things from china japan and anything the world gets would be taken off the market. Mainly foods. But even so that could do some serious damage to the world economy. Economically we are all connected as one. So the effects will get to everyone.

I don't know why people think they will be completely un effected by this..

That is just plain ignorance if they think they will be unaffected.

Japan was the fourth largest economy i the world, Sony, Toyota, Hitachi, Suzuki, Yamaha, Honda are all Japanese Multi-Nationals. I could name many more, but I'm betting no-one on EuroSpore can claim not to have at least one Japanese product in their household - I have a Sony Minidisc player for example, and a PS3.

Anyway, some good news.

Radiation levels have fallen at Japan's earthquake-stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, the government says.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12749444

Today the plant was evacuated and the radiation is at very dangerous levels.