Meltdown to follow Japan's quake.

Japan- the world’s third largest economy is fighting to avert a meltdown post the 8.9 earthquake that has affected many, including its 3 earthquake-crippled nuclear reactors. The massive quake and tsunami, which may have killed more than 10,000 people has been described as the nation's biggest crisis since World War Two.

The massive earthquake that struck North East Japan, Friday, March 11^th is said to be the single most devastating force to have hit Japan since World War Two. Japan's biggest earthquake on record on Friday knocked out the back-up cooling systems at Fukushima, north of Tokyo, causing a build-up of heat and pressure. An explosion hit the plant on Saturday.

Grim-faced Prime Minister Naoto Kan told press: "The earthquake, tsunami and the nuclear incident have been the biggest crisis Japan has encountered in the 65 years since the end of World War II, we're under scrutiny on whether we, the Japanese people, can overcome this crisis."

In relation to the nuclear reactors Kan added: "Radiation has been released in the air, but there are no reports that a large amount was released."

During his press release officials worked desperately to stop fuel rods in the damaged reactors from overheating, which could result in the container that houses the core melting, or at worst exploding, releasing radioactive material into the wind.

Many have been comparing the Japan adversity to 1986 nuclear disaster Chernobyl.  Malcolm Crick, Secretary of the U.N. Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation, told Reuters: "It won't be anything like Chernobyl. There the reactor was operating at full power when it exploded and it had no containment."

As a precaution, around 140,000 people have been evacuated from the area around Fukushima. Authorities have set up a 20km exclusion zone around the Fukushima Daiichi plant and a 10km zone around another nuclear facility close by. TEPCO announced that radiation levels around the Fukushima Daiichi plant had risen above the safety limit but that it did not mean an "immediate threat" to human health.

The Japan Meteorological Agency said that the winds in the area would shift from the south to a westerly on this evening, blowing from Fukushima toward the Pacific Ocean. The wind could affect residents north of the facility, an official at Japan's Meteorological Agency said.

But for now our thoughts and prayers remain with the Japanese citizens, those lost, those loved, those languished.

-ZB