The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) says last week’s earthquake and tsunami in Japan may have damaged a nuclear reactor core in the northeastern part of the country.

The IAEA says that a reactor container and the core of a nuclear reactor may have been damaged due to a hydrogen explosion at the Number Two reactor of the Fukushima Number One nuclear power plant in Fukushima Prefecture.

IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano made the announcement, saying that up to five percent of the core’s nuclear energy may have been lost.

He said, however, that the odds of massive damage are unlikely, as pressure in the containment vessel has not fallen.

He added that about 800 fuel rods stored in a facility at Fukushima’s Number Four reactor caught fire after an explosion blew a hole in the building housing the reactor.

The IAEA said that other nuclear power plants in the area --- including the Fukushima Number Two nuclear power plant, the Onagawa Nuclear Power Plant in Miyagi Prefecture and the Tokai Nuclear Power Plant in Ibaraki Prefecture --- remain stable.