Triggered by an 8.9 magnitude earthquake, the tsunami in Japan that struck a 1,300 mile stretch of the country’s eastern coast on Friday (2:46pm local time) has presented a second potential disaster at the Fukushima nuclear plant near Tokyo. Damage from the quake caused the cooling system of the plant to fail, prompting Japanese officials to issue the first ever state of emergency for a nuclear facility. About 3,000 people living near the facility were evacuated after power outages and a failed backup generator was preventing cooling water from functioning properly in the reactor, forcing workers to shut it down hot.