TOKYO (Reuters) – A major aftershock rocked northeast Japan yesterday and a tsunami warning was issued for the coast devastated by last month’s massive quake and tsunami that crippled a nuclear power plant.
The warning was later lifted and no tsunami was reported after the quake, which struck shortly before midnight. No damage from the quake, measured at magnitude 7.4 by the Japan Meteorological Agency, was detected at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, operator Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) said.
Workers struggling to bring the plant under control were evacuated but returned once the tsunami warning was lifted, a TEPCO official said.
Large parts of northern Japan, whose infrastructure was severely damaged by the March 11 quake and tsunami, were without electricity following the latest of many aftershocks, the biggest since last month’s killer quake.
Toru Hanai, a Reuters photographer in Oshu, Iwate prefecture, near the epicentre of yesterday’s aftershock, said his hotel lost power and a water pipe burst.
“Everything fell. My room is a complete mess and power is widely out in this area,” he said.
In the capital, Tokyo, buildings also shook.
“It started out as nothing much, then the building started swaying quite strongly,” a Reuters witness said.
By 1.30 a.m. (1630 GMT) seven people were reported injured, two seriously, a spokesman for the National Police Agency said.
Last month’s 9.0 magnitude quake triggered tsunami waves which swept in along the coast, wiping out towns. About 28,000 people were killed or are missing.
The disaster disrupted industry and affected supply chains around the world but it was not immediately clear if Thursday’s aftershock would compound those problems.
At the Fukushima nuclear plant, TEPCO said it was continuing to inject nitrogen into reactor No.1 after no irregularities were reported.
Engineers, who sealed a leak this week that had allowed highly radioactive water into the sea, are pumping nitrogen into one reactor to prevent the risk of a hydrogen gas explosion, and want to start the process in another two reactors.
There were no abnormalities in radiation levels around Tohoku Electric’s Onagawa nuclear power plant, where fuel rods are being cooled with just one outside power source, Japan’s nuclear safety agency said.
As well as Fukushima Daiichi and Onagawa, nuclear power plants Higashidori in Aomori prefecture, Tokai No.2 in Ibaraki prefecture, and Fukushima Daini have been out of operation since the March quake.
No abnormalities were reported at those plants after Thursday’s quake, which the meteorological agency said was an aftershock from last month’s quake.
