Japan’s perfect storm of troubles continues

Fukushima: Japan's perfect storm of troubles mounted with a strong earthquake of a preliminary magnitude 6.0 jolting the Kanto region Wednesday afternoon. The quake measured 5 on the Japanese intensity scale of 7 in parts of Chiba Prefecture and 3 in central Tokyo.

Chief government spokesman and cabinet secretary, Yukio Edano, has now said that the containment vessel of the quake-hit No 3 reactor of the Fukushima nuclear power plant may have been damaged, suggesting , without saying as much, that radioactive steam may be spreading outside.

Live TV footage of the plant showed white smoke coming out around 10 am rom the No 3 reactor. Edano told a press conference that the smoke was spotted at around 8:30 am and said, ''There is a possibility that the No. 3 reactor's containment vessel is damaged.''

He, however, said that the government had no plans to expand the evacuation area of within 20 kilometres from the plant for now.

As for the No 4 reactor, utility Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) said Tuesday that water in a pool storing the spent fuel rods may be boiling and that its level may have dropped, exposing the rods.

The government has ordered the firm to inject water into the pool ''as soon as possible to avert a major nuclear disaster.''