Following are main developments after a massive earthquake struck northeast Japan on Friday and set off a tsunami.
* Japanese television pictures show white smoke coming from a quake-crippled nuclear facility. The smoke was rising from the No.3 reactor of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant,240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo. Fuji TV said.
* Earlier a fire broke out at No.4 reactor of the plant where spent fuel rods are housed in a cooling pool. A blast on Tuesday blew a hole in the building housing the reactor, heightening fears that the spent fuel rods may be exposed to the elements.
– The power plant operator Tokyo Electric Power says it is considering dispersing boric acid, a fire retardant, over the Fukushima Daiichi plant’s No. 4 reactor from a helicopter.
– Fuel rods in the No. 1 reactor were 70 percent damaged and the rods in the No. 2 reactor were 33 percent damaged, Kyodo says.
– Winds over the radiation-leaking nuclear power plant in northern Japan will blow from the northwest and out into the Pacific Ocean on Wednesday, the Japan Meteorological Agency says.
– Japan’s benchmark Nikkei average rises more than 6 percent in early trading on Wednesday after suffering its worst two-day rout since 1987.
– The radiation level in Tokyo was 10 times normal on Tuesday evening, but there was no threat to human health, the city government says.
– People within a 30-km radius of the nuclear facility urged to stay indoors.
– Plant operator has pulled out 750 workers, leaving just 50, and 30-km no-fly zone has been imposed around the reactors.
– Food and water in short supply in parts of the northeast. hundreds of thousands have been evacuated, shelters are packed.
– Rolling power blackouts will affect 5 million households on Tuesday, TEPCO says.
– Some residents leave the capital. Others stock up on food.
– Death toll is expected to exceed 10,000, and rescue workers are continuing to search coastal cities for survivors.
