Japanese Scientists Fear Explosive Sakurajima Volcano Eruption

Pressure in Japan’s Sakurajima volcano, located near the Sendai nuclear power plant, is building up, which could lead to an explosive reaction, Director of the Sakurajima Volcano Research Center at Kyoto University warns.

TOKYO (Sputnik) – Masato Iguchi has flown over the volcano, which erupted on a small scale on Wednesday after multiple earthquakes in the region.

"The [Sakurajima] crater is almost completely blocked, internal pressure is building up and the explosive power is growing," Masato Iguchi said as quoted by RIA Novosti on Friday.

The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) raised the alert level for Sakurajima, located on a former island connected to the main island of Kyushu by lava flows, to level 4 on Saturday issuing evacuation advisories for local residents.

The Sakurajima volcano is located about 50 kilometers (31 miles) from the Sendai nuclear power plant, which was the first nuclear facility to restart one of its reactors earlier this month, after new safety rules were introduced in Japan following the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster.

Evacuation advisories issued on Saturday covered an area within a 3-kilometer (about 1.8-mile) radius of the Sakurajima crater.

In 2011, the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant was hit by a giant tsunami, triggered by a 9.0-magnitude earthquake. Thousands of people were killed in the disaster, which was the largest nuclear catastrophe in the world since the 1986 Chernobyl accident.