Another reactor at Fukushima plant loses coolant

Tokyo: Another nuclear reactor in Fukushima threatened to go out of control on Sunday morning as Japanese engineers worked to head off a meltdown in the wake of the massive 9.0 earthquake.

The cooling system had stopped working in a sixth reactor, according to the Japanese news agency Kyodo.

In the particularly hard-hit reactor 1 of the Fukushima nuclear plant complex, technicians had begun to flood the system with sea water and boron to head off a meltdown.

In Washington, CNN reported that an official from Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) told a CNN reporter that a meltdown may be under way, which would be a catastrophic failure of one reactor.

There was no public confirmation of the statement.

At least 170,000 people have been urgently evacuated within a 20-km radius of the Fukushima plant, NISA has informed the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna.