Third Explosion Rocks Japan Nuclear Plant

By Michael Baron 03/14/11 - 09:15 PM EDT

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Another explosion has reportedly occurred at a compromised nuclear plant in Japan late Monday, heightening fears about radiation leaks in the areas devastated by Friday's earthquake and tsunami.

The No. 2 reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi plant experienced the latest explostion, according to The New York Times, which said all three reactors at the plant have now been hit, citing comments from plant officials.

A survivor of the tsunami that swept through his village of Saito, in northeastern Japan, retells the story to a rescue team that arrived to search the area on Monday.

Details about the latest explosion are still difficult to come by, the NYT said, adding that executives from the operator of the plant, Tokyo Electric Power, are "giving only preliminary reports and declining to answer questions from reporters pressing for more information."

The Wall Street Journal, citing information from Japan's nuclear safety agency, said there was no evidence as yet of a serious radiation leak at the plant and that workers there had been evacuated.
>>>Japan Rocked by Earthquake: In Pictures

Japanese officials were showing confidence however that the leaks could be handled and that the situation would not turn into "another Chernobyl," the Journal article said, referring to the disaster that occurred in what is now the Ukraine in April 1986.

"Even in the worst-case scenario, we won't have a repeat of Chernobyl," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano was quoted by the WSJ as saying at a press briefing. "At this point, we can say we are moving in the direction of stabilizing the situation in a managed manner of a certain degree."

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