Deep beneath Fukushima’s crippled nuclear power station a massive underground reservoir of contaminated water that began spilling from the plant’s reactors after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami has been creeping slowly toward the sea.

Nissan is considering moving some production from Japan to America because of earthquake damage to its engine plant in Iwaki.

An explosion shattered a building housing a nuclear reactor today amid fears of a meltdown, while across wide swaths of north-eastern Japan officials searched for thousands of people missing more than a day after a devastating earthquake and tsunami.

Another powerful earthquake has hit the same area where a nuclear power plant has already leaked some radiation.

Miles from the ocean’s edge, weary, mud-spattered survivors wandered streets strewn with fallen trees, crumpled cars, even small planes. Relics of lives now destroyed were everywhere – half a piano, a textbook, a soiled red sleeping bag.