Radiation from nuclear reactor in Fukushima sparks fears of meltdown after deadly tsunami, quake

Japan's government on Saturday scrambled to squash fears of a possible nuclear meltdown after an explosion inside a building housing a power plant's reactor as the country grapples with the devastation left behind from a massive earthquake and deadly tsunami.

Government spokesman Yukio Edano said radiation levels were decreasing near the blast site in Fukushima and that the metal container protecting the reactor was not damaged.

"We have confirmed that the walls of this building were what exploded, and it was not the reactor's container that exploded," Edano said.

PHOTOS: JAPAN IN CHAOS

Television footage, however, showed large clouds of grey smoke pouring out the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant.

Earlier reports said radiation levels inside the plant surged to 1,000 times more than normal and a small leak was detected.

The 8.9-magnitude earthquake and 23-foot tsunami wave battered the island nation, killing at least 574 people dead and thousands injured

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Some local media reports claim 1,300 people have been killed.

People living within 12 miles of the power plant were evacuated, but the widespread destruction has made leaving difficult.

"Everyone wants to get out of the town. But the roads are terrible," Reiko Takagi told The Associated Press. "It is too dangerous to go anywhere. But we are afraid that winds may change and bring radiation toward us."

Homes, cars and even a ship were swept out to sea with powerful 33-foot-high waves that left a grim trail of mud and mayhem along the country's east coast - and rippled across the Pacific Ocean to Hawaii, Oregon and California.

The natural disaster paralyzed Tokyo and triggered emergencies for five nuclear reactors at two power plants when their cooling systems failed, forcing the evacuations of nearly 14,000 people.

Workers struggled to prevent a meltdown as radiation levels inside one plant soared to 1,000 times above normal. And officials warned that small amounts of radiation could leak out of the two plants.

People trapped beneath debris in one ravaged residential area were crying for help on the morning after the killer quake, the Kyodo news agency reported.

People at a book store react as the store's ceiling falls in Sendai, northern Japan. Kyodo/AP

"When are we going to be rescued?" they shouted in vain. Japanese television also showed hospital staffers standing on a rooftop waving signs with the words "FOOD" and "HELP."

Eighty dock workers aboard a ship in Miyaga disappeared along with the craft when the tsunami hit, while 1,800 houses were destroyed in the small town of Minami-soma.

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