A few hours ago, Japan got hit with an earthquake that measured 8.9 on the Richter scale, the biggest temblor in more than a century. The damage done extends to at least two nuclear power plants.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano, the top civil servant in the nation, said that there was a mechanical failure in the cooling system of the nuclear power plant in Fukushima. In declaring an emergency, he was quite deliberate in saying there was no radiation leak and that there was no immediate danger.
A spokesman for the Tohoku Electric Power Company said that the Onagawa nuclear plant said the process for the cooling reactor is “not going as planned.” Bearing in mind that Emperor Hirohito said, “The war situation has developed not necessarily to Japan’s advantage” after two atomic bombs destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki, “not going as planned” covers a pretty broad range of situations.
Fingers crossed.