Source: ABC News
A new explosion ripped through a crippled nuclear plant as hundreds of people are being tested for radiation exposure and the death toll continued to climb following Friday's 8.9 earthquake and tsunami in Japan.
The hydrogen blast was reported at Unit 3 of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant Monday, raising new fears of a possible nuclear meltdown. Officials had warned the explosion at the Fukushima Daiichi Plant could happen after Unit 1 exploded on Saturday, TV Asahi reported.
Officials from Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said the reactor's containment was not damaged and although radiation was leaked, levels were low.
At least 11 workers were injured in the blast, officials told the Associated Press.
NISA officials reported that reactor No. 2 at Daiichi plant has lost its cooling ability and pressure is rising.
The news came as aftershocks continue to rattle the region including a 6.2 temblor.
Officials say the death toll may reach as high as 10,000 with reports of thousands of bodies washing ashore in one of the hardest-hit villages.
The roads were quiet as cars have been abandoned on the roadside in some of hardest-hit areas in Japan.
"People are surviving on little food and water. Things are simply not coming," Hajime Sato, a government official in Lwate prefecture, one of the three most affected areas, told the Associated Press.
The disaster has left millions without food, water and heat in near-freezing temperatures.
Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan said 100,000 troops -- plus 2,500 police, 1,100 emergency service teams, and more than 200 medical teams have been deployed for recovery efforts.
Ichiro Fujisaki, the nation's U.S. ambassador, said about 2.5 million households -- just over 4 percent of all households in Japan -- were without electricity Sunday, and 500,000 homes were without water.
There were worries over the welfare of the elderly population who live in some of the affected areas.
"They have some medicines for the immediate future, but in the coming weeks that's when it really could become an issue," Sam Taylor, spokesman for Doctors Without Borders, told the Associated Press.
At least 1,596 people have been killed, according to NHK News.
The U.S. Embassy said that 100,000 Americans are known to be in Japan, and 1,300 of them live in the areas most affected by the earthquake and tsunami. There are no known American casualties.
Japan's Nikkei dropped 6.3 percent in the first session since the quake hit, which prompted the central bank to line up a record $183 billion in funds to help stabilize the banking system.
Companies like Toyota and Sony have halted production lines, Bloomberg News reported.
Japanese authorities have been working frantically to prevent a meltdown at a series of nuclear reactors in Fukushima. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has sent two of its officials with expertise in boiling-water nuclear reactors.
Unit 3 at the Fukushima Daiichi plant had been one focus of concern, and Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano had said the government knew an explosion there was possible.
Workers had tried releasing radioactive air and injecting sea water to reduce pressure and cool the reactor down to avoid an explosion like the one Saturday at Unit 1 that injured four workers.
At least 170,000 people have been evacuated in the 12-mile radius around the Fukushima plants. It is unclear if people are being asked to evacuate around the Miyagi power plant.
Japanese authorities declared a state of emergency at another nuclear power plant following Friday's massive earthquake that has left the country in a crisis Japan hasn't seen since World War II.
A state of emergency was declared at the Onagawa nuclear power plant, located in the hard-hit Miyagi prefecture, the International Atomic Energy Agency reported.
After Friday's earthquake, a fire broke out at the Onagawa plant but was later contained, the Associated Press reported.
Officials from the Tohoku Electric Power Company said that higher than normal radioactivity readings prompted the heightened alert today. The emergency is at level one, the lowest state of emergency.
Another nuclear complex, the Tokai Dai-Ni plant, experienced a failure after Friday's quake, the Associated Press reported. It's unclear why the incident wasn't reported by the Japan Atomic Power Co. until Sunday.
The aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan and other US Navy ships off the quake zone were repositioned after the detection of a low-level radiation plume from the troubled Fukushima nuclear plant located 100 miles away on Sunday.
It is one of a number of U.S. vessels diverted to offer disaster aid to the shattered country.
At least four more Navy ships will be arriving in the days to come to assist with relief efforts.
ABC News' Akiko Fujita, Jessica Hopper, Michael James and Dan Childs and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
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