Crisis deepens at Japan plant,3 reactors hit

Radioactive Leaks: Explosion in second reactor,cooling effort fails at third.

Japans struggle to contain the crisis at the stricken Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station worsened sharply late on Monday India time,as emergency operations to pump seawater into one crippled reactor failed,increasing the risk of an uncontrolled release of radioactive material,officials said.

Earlier on Monday,an explosion blew the roof off a second reactor Reactor 3,presumably leaking some radiation. On Saturday,the government had confirmed an explosion in Reactor 1.

Late Monday night,with cooling systems already malfunctioning simultaneously at three reactors,an acute crisis developed at Reactor 2,where a series of problems thwarted efforts to keep the core covered with water a step considered crucial to preventing the reactors containment vessel from exploding and preventing the fuel inside it from melting down.

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The plants operator,Tokyo Electric Power,said repeated efforts to inject seawater into the reactor had failed,causing water levels inside the containment vessel to fall,exposing its fuel rods. After some initial success,water levels dwindled to critical levels,exposing the rods almost completely,company executives said.

The more time that passes with fuel rods uncovered by water and the pressure inside the containment vessel unvented,the greater the risk that the containment vessel will crack or explode,creating a potentially catastrophic release of radioactive material into the atmosphere an accident that would be by far the worst since Chernobyl a quarter century ago.

In Reactor 2,now the most damaged of the three at the plant,at least parts of the fuel rods have been exposed for several hours,which suggests that some of the fuel has begun to melt. If more fuel melts,the fuel pellets could burn through the bottom of the containment vessel and radioactive material could pour out often referred to as a full meltdown.

Theyre basically in a full-scale panic, said a senior nuclear industry executive late Monday night about the response to the crisis. Theyre in total disarray,they dont know what to do.

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There was no immediate indication that either of the other two reactors,1 and 3,had experienced a crisis as serious as that at Number 2.

But part of the outer structure housing Reactor 3 exploded earlier on Monday,as did the structure surrounding Reactor 1 on Saturday. Live footage on public broadcaster NHK showed the skeletal remains of the reactor building and thick smoke rising from the building. Eleven people had been injured in the blast,one seriously,officials said.