World News Engine: Japan's 7.1-quake causes radioactive water spill

Japan's 7.1-quake causes radioactive water spill

A powerful earthquake in northeast Japan rocked a nuclear plant, causing a small amount of radioactive water to spill, officials said Friday, but the operator said there was no immediate danger.

The 7.1-magnitude quake that hit late Thursday caused liquid to overflow from spent fuel pools in all three reactor buildings at the Onagawa plant, the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said.

Most seriously affected was reactor number two, where 3.8 litres from the spent fuel pool ended up on the floor of the operation room.

But operator Tohoku-Electric Power Co. said no radioactive l
iquid had leaked out of the plant.

"It's not like the Fukushima nuclear plant, where water kept running out," said a spokesman.

"We're currently investigating where the water came from. The radiation levels in the wet areas are far below the level that would require us to report to authorities."

The Onagawa plant lies more than 100 kilometres from the Fukushima Daiichi facility, where the March 11 quake and tsunami knocked out cooling systems causing a series of explosions.

Radioactive water was found to be seeping from Fukushima into the Pacific Ocean after the disaster, although plant officials say that leak has now been fixed.

Tohoku-Electric Power said all three reactors at the Onagawa plant were placed in a state of cold shut-down after the magnitude 9.0 earthquake on March 11 and were no longer operating when the latest quake struck.

"The water in the spent fuel pools spilled over the edges," the spokesman added. "It's not like water is continuously dripping from a crack or anything."

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