letupan di fukushima nuclear complex

Another explosion has been reported at the stricken Fukushima nuclear complex as Japan scrambles to avert a meltdown.

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LATEST: Japan faced potential catastrophe on Tuesday after a quake-crippled nuclear power plant exploded and sent low levels of radiation floating toward Tokyo, prompting some people to flee the capital and others to stock up on essential supplies.

Prime Minister Naoto Kan urged people within 30km of the facility north of Tokyo to remain indoors and conserve power amid the world's most serious nuclear disaster since the Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine in 1986.

The French Embassy in Tokyo warned that a low level of radioactive wind could reach the capital, 240 km south of the plant.

Radiation levels in the city of Maebashi, 100 km north of Tokyo were up to 10 times normal levels, Kyodo news agency said. Only minute levels were found in the capital itself, which so far were "not a problem", city officials said.

"The possibility of further radioactive leakage is heightening," a grim-faced Kan said in an address to the nation. "We are making every effort to prevent the leak from spreading. I know that people are very worried but I would like to ask you to act calmly."

There were two explosions on Tuesday at two of the reactors at the nuclear facility after days of frantic efforts to cool them. Japan told the UN nuclear watchdog a spent fuel storage "pond" was on fire and radioactivity was being released "directly" into the atmosphere.

Japanese officials later said the fire, in Unit 4 of the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant, had been extinguished.

Levels of 400 millisieverts per hour had been recorded at the plant, the government said. Exposure to over 100 millisieverts a year is a level which can lead to cancer, according to the World Nuclear Association.

Japan announced a 30 km no-fly zone around the reactors.

Despite pleas for calm, residents rushed to shops in Tokyo to stock up on supplies. Don Quixote, a multi-storey, 24-hour general store in Roppongi district, sold out of radios, flashlights, candles and sleeping bags.

In a sign of regional fears about the risk of radiation, China said it was strengthening monitoring of the area and Air China said it had canceled flights to Tokyo.

Several embassies advised staff and citizens to leave affected areas. Tourists cut short vacations and multinational companies either urged staff to leave or said they were considering plans to move outside Tokyo.

"I'm scared. I'm so scared I would rather be in the eye of a tornado," said 10-year-old Lucy Niver of Egan, Minnesota, who was on holiday in Japan. "I want to leave."

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Winds over the nuclear facility were blowing slowly in a southwesterly direction that includes Tokyo but will shift westerly later on Tuesday, a weather official said.

GOVERNMENT ACCUSED OF HIDING TRUTH

Anxious neighbours of the stricken nuclear plant accused the government of hiding the truth about possible radiation risks, compounding the misery of a devastating earthquake and tsunami.

"I don't think they are telling us the truth. Maybe even they don't know," said Toshiaki Kiuchi, a 63-year-old innkeeper whose business was flooded waist-deep by Friday's tsunami.

Soma lies 50km north of the crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant, where the quake and tsunami knocked out power, crippling cooling systems. A series of explosions in the plant's generating units have raised fears of radiation leaks.

"We are really afraid, as if we didn't already have enough to worry about. You can't see fallout so we are totally relying on them for our lives," said Shinako Tachiya, 70. A lifelong resident of Soma, she was cleaning up her lightly damaged house on high ground overlooking the ravaged town.

The town lies 20km outside the evacuation zone the government threw up Tuesday around the Fukushima plant but residents worry they could be threatened by further nuclear problems.

"I used to believe the nuclear power officials, but not now. I think they are not being open with us. They aren't telling us anything," said Tachiya.

Kiuchi said: "The only information we get is what we see on TV or hear on the radio. They don't tell us anything about our safety, just technical jargon and warnings to stay out of the official evacuation zone.

Panicked residents raced out of town Monday night after a second explosion was reported.

"We have to get out of here now!" one man said. "It's just not safe anymore."

The tsunami left a fishing boat blocking Kiuchi's front gate. Windows were shattered and burst pipes spewed water out front.

"I have no way of getting out of here if we were ordered to leave. My car was wrecked," said Kiuchi. "But this is where we live. They built a nuclear facility here, so we just have to deal with it."

DEATH TOLL RISES

The death toll from last week's earthquake and tsunami jumped Tuesday as police confirmed the number killed had topped 2400, though that grim news was overshadowed by a deepening nuclear crisis. Officials have said previously that at least 10,000 people may have died in Miyagi province alone.

Millions of people spent a fourth night with little food, water or heating in near-freezing temperatures as they dealt with the loss of homes and loved ones. Asia's richest country hasn't seen such hardship since World War II.

Hajime Sato, a government official in Iwate prefecture, one of the hardest-hit, said deliveries of supplies were only 10 percent of what is needed. Body bags and coffins were running so short that the government may turn to foreign funeral homes for help, he said.

Though Japanese officials have refused to speculate on the death toll, Indonesian geologist Hery Harjono, who dealt with the 2004 Asian tsunami, said it would be "a miracle really if it turns out to be less than 10,000" dead.

The 2004 tsunami killed 230,000 people - of which only 184,000 bodies were found.

Harjono noted that many bodies in Japan may have been sucked out to sea or remain trapped beneath rubble as they did in Indonesia's hardest-hit Aceh province. But he also stressed that Japan's infrastructure, high-level of preparedness and city planning to keep houses away from the shore could mitigate its human losses.

The impact of the earthquake and tsunami on the world's third-largest economy helped drag down the share markets Monday, the first business day since the disasters. The benchmark Nikkei 225 stock average for a second day Tuesday, by 6.5 percent to 8999.73, wiping out this year's gains while the broader Topix index lost 7.5 percent.

To lessen the damage, Japan's central bank injected $US61.2 billion ($NZ84 billion) Tuesday into the money markets after pumping in $US184 billion on Monday.

Initial estimates put repair costs in the tens of billions of dollars, costs that would likely add to a massive public debt that, at 200 percent of gross domestic product, is the biggest among industrialized nations.

In a bid to stop the reactors at the nuclear plant from melting down, engineers have been injecting seawater as a coolant of last resort.

Yuta Tadano, a 20-year-old pump technician at the Fukushima power plant, said he was on the second floor of an office building in the complex when quake hit.

"It was terrible. The desks were thrown around and the tables too. The walls started to crumble around us and there was dust everywhere. The roof began to collapse.

"We got outside and confirmed everyone was safe . Then we got out of there. We had no time to be tested for radioactive exposure. I still haven't been tested," Tadano told The Associated Press at an evacuation center outside the exclusion zone.

"We live about 10 kilometers (6 miles) from the facility. We had to figure out on our own where to go," said Tadano, cradling his 4-month-old baby, Shoma. "I worry a lot about fallout. If we could see it we could escape, but we can't."

"Just because we are an evacuation center doesn't mean we are safe," said his sister-in-law Makiko Murasawa, 43.

The nuclear crisis has also raised global concerns about the safety of nuclear power at a time when it has seen a resurgence as an alternative to fossil fuels.

The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency said the Japanese government has asked the agency to send experts to help.

The Dai-ichi plant is the most severely affected of three nuclear complexes that were declared emergencies after suffering damage in Friday's quake and tsunami, raising questions about the safety of such plants in coastal areas near fault lines and adding to global jitters over the industry.

Switzerland ordered a freeze on new plants, while Germany said it was suspending a decision to extend the life of its nuclear plants. The United States said it would try to learn from the Japanese crisis but that events would not diminish the US commitment to nuclear power.

"When we talk about reaching a clean energy standard, it is a vital part of that," White House spokesman Jay Carney said.

Meanwhile, 17 US military personnel involved in helicopter relief missions were found to have been exposed to low levels of radiation after they flew back from the devastated coast to the USS Ronald Reagan, an aircraft carrier about 160km offshore.

US officials said the exposure level was roughly equal to one month's normal exposure to natural background radiation, and the 17 were declared contamination-free after scrubbing with soap and water.

As a precaution, the carrier and other 7th Fleet ships involved in relief efforts had shifted to another area, the US said.

- Reuters and AP