AFP - Fears of a major nuclear accident are alive after an explosion Saturday in a nuclear power station 250 km from Tokyo, following the strong earthquake and tsunami that have made the day more than 1,800 dead or missing in Japan.
The accident has been assessed at Level 4 on the scale (which goes up to 7) nuclear and radiological events (INES), announced the Japan Nuclear and Industrial Safety.
The government ordered the evacuation of residents within a radius of 20 km around the NPP.
The toll of the earthquake and tsunami could rise.Saturday night the authorities were without news of some 10,000 of the 17,000 inhabitants of the port city of Minamisanriku in north-east, according to the television channel NHK.
