A violent explosion has occurred in a building at one of Japan's nuclear power plants that was damaged by Friday's historic 8.9-magnitude earthquake.
As yet- Japanese officials seemingly continue to downplay the seriousness of the situation- and have not confirmed a reactor meltdown at that power plant.
Images captured from video show an explosion (Image 2) ripped apart what appeared to be one of 4 reactor containment buildings at the Fukushima 1 plant about 160 miles northeast of Tokyo.
The Fukushima 1 plant was the first nuclear power plant said to be damaged by the earthquake- the hours later came the revelation that a 2nd nuclear plant- Fukushima 2- located about 6 miles south of Fukushima 1- had also been damaged.
Neither plant was able to get coolant to the reactors because of the quake damage- and the reactor's radioactive fuel rods have overheated.
There is yet no confirmation that the explosion at the Fukushima 1 plant was in a reactor containment building- but that does indeed appear to be the case.
Four workers have been injured in the building explosion- and tens of thousands of quake-battered residents within a 6-7 mile radius of both stricken power plants had been ordered to evacuate.
Television news video shows heavy smoke continuing to pour from the destroyed building.
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