SYDNEY: Australia said Sunday it wanted urgent information from Japan on the threat posed by an explosion at a nuclear plant and said it had offered Tokyo atomic expertise.
Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd said he spoke to his Japanese counterpart Takeaki Matsumoto late Saturday after the explosion at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, which was damaged in Friday's 8.9 earthquake, sparked fears of a meltdown.
While the Japanese government says there is no immediate threat outside the 20 kilometre (12-mile) exclusion zone around the plant, Rudd said Australia and the world was awaiting further information.
"We and the rest of the international community need urgent briefings on the precise status of these reactors," he told public broadcaster ABC on Sunday.
"We are seeking further co-operation on the technical and safety aspects of these from the Japanese government."
Rudd said that while he wanted to avoid being "alarmist", he had urged the updates when he spoke to Matsumoto and also offered Japan any nuclear expertise Australia could provide.
Smoke billowed from the Fukushima No. 1 atomic plant about 250 kilometres northeast of Tokyo, after an explosion blew off the roof and walls of the structure around one of its reactors.
Radiation leaked from the plant, but the government moved to calm fears of a meltdown, saying that the blast did not rupture the container surrounding the reactor and that radiation levels had fallen afterwards.
Rudd said Australia also offered Japan self contained field hospitals and disaster victim identification teams to help in the grisly process of rescuing survivors and recovering bodies from the quake and the huge tsunami that it triggered.
In the small port town of Minamisanriku alone, some 10,000 people are unaccounted for more than half the population after it was hammered by tsunami waves, according to Japanese public broadcaster NHK.
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