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Experts have moved to allay fears of a Chernobyl-style disaster after Japan ordered 140,000 people to stay indoors because of leaking radiation from a stricken nuclear power station.

A third explosion and a fire at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant saw radiation spread along Japan’s northeastern coast worsening the crisis caused by the 9.0-magnitude earthquake and tsunami which followed.

The disaster has so far killed 3,300 people, although the death toll is expected to top 10,000. Some 500,000 peopel are homeless and the world's third-largest economy has taken a battering.

Hundreds of aftershocks have shaken Japan’s northeast and Tokyo since the original offshore quake, including one of magnitude 6.0 today. The quake could be felt in Tokyo where buildings swayed.