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Japan quake causes nuclear plant leak, kills eight
By Kyoko Hasegawa
AFP
KASHIWAZAKI, Japan
Petroleumworld.com 07 17 07A powerful earthquake struck Japan on Monday, killing eight people, injuring hundreds and causing radioactive water to leak from a nuclear plant that also caught fire.
The mid-morning quake, striking northwest of Tokyo and registering 6.8 on the Richter scale, also damaged hundreds of homes, reducing some to heaps of rubble.
"The television set and washing machine were thrown across the room," said Satoshi Hirokawa, 51, whose house in the worst-hit city of Kashiwazaki was partially destroyed.
"But I felt relieved as at least I could confirm that my family was safe."
Water containing a "small amount of radioactive material" leaked from the massive Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant, where a fire caused by the quake sent black smoke pouring into the sky for hours.
"The leakage is believed to be far below the levels that could affect the environment," said Shougo Fukuda, of Tokyo Electric, which operates the facility located near the epicentre of the deadly earthquake.
The plant is one of the largest in the world, supplying power to the energy-hungry Tokyo region.
The firm said the fire broke out in the area supplying electricity but that the four reactors in operation had already been automatically stopped after the quake, which also generated small tsunami waves.
Dozens of aftershocks were felt throughout the day in central Japan.
Late Monday, a separate earthquake of 6.6 on the Richter scale struck in the Sea of Japan (East Sea) off the western city of Kyoto.
There was no immediate fear of tsunami waves, said the Meteorological Agency, or reports of damage from the latest quake, which was nonetheless felt in much of the Japanese archipelago.
At least 875 people were injured in Niigata prefecture which includes Kashiwazaki, local officials said.
Rescue workers were hunting for anyone buried in the wreckage after nearly 800 buildings were damaged by the quake, which shook skyscrapers in Tokyo more than 200 kilometres (125 miles) away.
The Defence Agency dispatched some 450 troops and 120 military vehicles to the region to help support rescue operations.
The eight people killed were all in their 70s or 80s, according to the National Police Agency.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe earlier broke away from election campaigning to rush to Kashiwazaki, where thousands of people flocked to schools and other emergency shelters.Dressed in a relief worker's uniform, he said he had given instructions to his government that "all possible measures be taken to ensure the safety of residents, secure lifelines to them and relieve their anxieties."
Niigata was hit by another earthquake measuring 6.8 on the Richter scale in 2004 that killed 67 people, most of them elderly who died in the days and weeks after the first tremor from stress and fatigue.
" Even though there was a big one three years ago, you just can't get used to these quakes," said Tetsuya Oda, a 17-year-old student.
The quake also triggered mudslides in Kashiwazaki, where soil was already loose following a major typhoon at the weekend, which left four people dead or missing and flooded hundreds of homes across Japan.
Monday was a bank holiday in Japan, so financial markets and many offices were closed.
Japan lies at the junction of four tectonic plates and is hit by about 20 percent of the world's most powerful earthquakes.
In January 1995, a 7.3-magnitude quake destroyed much of the western metropolis of Kobe, killing more than 6,400 people.
AFP 16 1853 GMT 07 07
Copyright© 2007 AFP. All Rights Reserved.
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