Japan Toll May Rise Into Tens Of Thousands | Nuke Plants Critical

The tsunami unleashed by a 9.1 magnitude earthquake off the coast of Japan two days ago may have claimed tens of thousands of lives.

In the city of Minimisanriku, over 9500 of the city's 17,000 residents are unaccounted for. The official toll right now is nowhere near as high as it's likely to go once the full extent of the devastation is realized.

The Fukushima nuclear power plant is currently very unstable. Overnight, reactor #1 at the plant experienced a large explosion that blew the building around the reactor to smithereens. There is no indication that the containment vessels have been compromised, but a core meltdown is a possibility if they are unable to get cooling water into the vessel. Here's a video of the explosion:



The Guardian has an amazing video on it's home page. Click here to see it.