February 02, 2013 - JAPAN - A
POWERFUL 6.9 magnitude earthquake has struck northern Japan, causing
strong tremors across Hokkaido island, but no damage to several nuclear
facilities in the region, officials say. The quake, which was preceded
by an early warning broadcast on television and radio, hit near the town
of Obihiro at a depth of 103 kilometres at 11.17pm on Saturday (0117
AEDT Sunday), according to US Geological Survey data. Ten people
suffered minor injuries due to falling objects, broken glass and other
incidents, according to national broadcaster NHK, but authorities said
no serious damage was reported and the quake did not generate a tsunami.
The shaking lasted about a minute, and video taken in the offices of NHK
Hokkaido showed computer screens swaying and shelves threatening to
give way. Bottles smashed to the ground in supermarkets, some areas had
power blackouts and a number of highways were closed. Trains were
stopped on rural tracks as a precaution. "Beware of possible landslides
and buildings that could have been weakened," an official from Japan's
Meteorological Agency warned at a press conference. The most violent
tremors were felt in the eastern part of Hokkaido - the nation's second
largest island and a popular skiing destination - but the northern part
of the island was also shaken along with parts of the main island of
Honshu, where Tokyo is located. Utility firms said no abnormalities
were reported at the Tomari nuclear plant in Hokkaido's west, nor in the
nuclear facilities in Aomori, the northernmost prefecture on Honshu.
Aomori is home to the Higashidori nuclear reactors and a nuclear
reprocessing plant in Rokkasho which is currently in a testing phase, as
well as fuel storage sites.
At present only two of the country's 50 reactors are operational, after
the entire network was shuttered over several months for scheduled
safety checks following the quake-tsunami disaster of March 2011. Both
are in Oi, in Honshu's west. Shortly before Saturday's quake hit, an
alert was broadcast on television and radio through an early warning
system established by the weather agency, and programs were interrupted
on NHK. "Make yourself safe, turn off the gas, beware of falling
objects, and if you are outside do not approach the coast," a
broadcaster said. The devastating 2011 earthquake and tsunami in
Japan's northeast left some 19,000 people dead or missing and crippled
the Fukushima nuclear power plant in the world's worst atomic disaster
in 25 years. A powerful 7.3-magnitude undersea quake in the same area
in December triggered a one-metre-high tsunami, but there were no
reports of fatalities. Since the Fukushima disaster the country has
been fearing another quake catastrophe. Some of Japan's reactors,
including the Higashidori facility, are built near faults suspected to
be active. Since the March disaster, anti-nuclear sentiment has run
high in Japan, which used to rely on atomic power for around a third of
its electricity needs. Some four hours after the quake a 5.5-magnitude
tremor struck off Japan's Izu islands, around 725 kilometres south of
Tokyo, according to the US Geological Survey. -
Herald Sun.
