Tokyo (CNN) — Officials ordered an evacuation Friday of residents living near a Japanese nuclear power plant, saying there has been no sign yet of leaks but indicating a struggle to “cool down” one of the atomic facilities.
A 8.9-magnitude earthquake led to cooling problems and a fire at two of Japan’s nuclear plants closest to its epicenter, said government officials.
Late Friday, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told reporters that people within 2 to 3 kilometers (1.2 to 1.8 miles) of the Fukushima Daiichi power plant have been told to leave the area. Those closer by — within 3 to 10 kilometers — were asked to stay home. Japan’s Kyodo News Agency estimated that the evacuation order directly affected about 3,000 people.
“This is a precautionary instruction for people to evacuate,” Edano said. “There is no radioactive leakage at this moment outside of the facility
Yet Edano said the Fukushima Daiichi reactor “remains at a high temperature,” because it “cannot cool down.” The Kyodo agency reported Friday that the radiation level was rising in a turbine building at the plant.
That plant and three others were shut down following the quake, after Japan declared a state of atomic power emergency.
Cham Gallas, a professor of disaster management at the University of Georgia, said that it wouldn’t be surprising if reactors get “both thermally hot and radioactively hot” after the reactors were shut down.
“When they shut down reactors, it takes a long time for them to go down,” said Dallas. “It does not necessarily mean radioactive material got out of the reactor.”
While authorities are “bracing for the scenario,” the minister said, “At this moment, there is no danger to the environment.”
Fire broke out at a second facility, the Onagawa plant, but crews were able to put that fire out, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency.
The trouble at the Fukushima plant happened after the plant successfully shut down, Edano said. Crews had difficulty generating enough electricity to pump water into the facility to cool it, he said.
Janie Eudy told CNN that her husband, Joe, was working at the plant and was injured by falling and shattering glass when the quake struck. As he and others were planning to evacuate, at their managers’ orders, tsunami waves struck and washed buildings from the nearby town past the plant.
“To me, it sounded like hell on earth,” she said, adding that her husband ultimately escaped.
The government said earlier that it was sending senior officials and the defense force’s Chemical Corps to Fukushima power plant, according to the Kyodo news agency.
