Second explosion at stricken Japan nuclear plant

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A market near a port is filled with debris in Fudai, Iwate, Northern Japan on Monday

A hydrogen explosion rocked the earthquake-stricken nuclear plant in Japan where authorities have been working desperately to avert a meltdown, compounding a nuclear catastrophe caused by Friday's massive quake and tsunami.

Japan, already saddled with debts twice the size of its $5 trillion economy, faces blackouts to conserve energy after the disaster, possible credit downgrades and the government is discussing a temporary tax rise to fund relief work.

The stock market plunged over 6 per cent and one economist put the cost of the disaster at between 14 trillion yen ($171 billion) and 15 trillion yen just to the quake-hit region.
Engineeers and rescuers battled through the weekend to prevent a nuclear catastrophe and to care for the millions without power or water in its worst crisis since World War Two, after the earthquake and tsunami that likely killed more than 10,000 people.

Kyodo news agency said 2,000 bodies had been found on the shores of Miyagi prefecture, which took the brunt of the tsunami.

The core container of the No. 3 reactor was intact after the explosion, the government said, but it warned those still in the 20-km (13-mile) evacuation zone to stay indoors. The plant operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO), said 11 people had been injured in the blast.

Jiji news agency said seven people, six of them soldiers, were missing.
A Japanese official said before the blast 22 people had been confirmed to have suffered radiation contamination and up to 190 may have been exposed. Workers in protective clothing used hand-held scanners to check people arriving at evacuation centres.
U.S. warships and planes helping with relief efforts moved away from the coast temporarily because of low-level radiation. The U.S. Seventh Fleet described the move as precautionary.
Almost 2 million households were without power in the north, the government said. There were about 1.4 million without running water.
The government had warned of a possible explosion at the No 3 reactor because of the buildup of hydrogen in the building housing the reactor. TV images showed smoke rising from the Fukushima facility, 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo.
TEPCO had earlier halted injection of sea water into the reactor, resulting in a rise in radiation levels and pressure. The government had warned that an explosion was possible because of the buildup of hydrogen in the building housing the reactor.
An explosion blew the roof off the No I reactor building on Saturday.
"I was having lunch at a restaurant when I saw the news of the explosion at unit 3," said Mikiko Amano, 55, who was at her home a few km from the plant. "It only raised my distrust in TEPCO. The company has been saying such a thing would not happen."
A badly wounded nation has seen whole villages and towns wiped off the map by a wall of water, triggering an international humanitarian effort of epic proportions.