Powerful Quake off Japan Rekindles Fears of Another Fukushima

TOKYO — A robust undersea earthquake off the Fukushima area of Japan, the place a tsunami a decade in the past set off one of many worst nuclear plant disasters in historical past, shook buildings for greater than two minutes late Wednesday night time.

Then the ready started.

Shortly after the quake hit at 11:36 p.m., the Japan Meteorological Company issued tsunami warnings for the prefectures of Fukushima and Miyagi, and 1000’s of residents, a lot of whom keep in mind solely too nicely the destruction of 2011, evacuated.

“Please put out any fires,” officers within the metropolis of Minamisoma, in Fukushima, instructed residents as they urged them to get to safer ground. “Please take heed to the TV and radio and act calmly and accordingly.”

Hours later, the warnings had been lifted.

A number of small tsunami waves measuring maybe 20 centimeters in top (eight inches) had been reported in two communities, however they had been one-fifth the dimensions that was forecast — and tiny in comparison with the 45-foot wave that devastated the area in 2011. Greater than 19,000 folks died in that disaster.

“In quite a lot of areas, there was quite a lot of stuff thrown in every single place, like recordsdata and every little thing,” mentioned Shelly Reid, a workers member at Minamisoma Metropolis Corridor. “Some roads had been broken, particularly alongside the coast. There have been some landslides.”

One particular person in Minamisoma was confirmed lifeless after Wednesday’s quake.

The earthquake measured magnitude 7.3 — sturdy sufficient to do critical structural harm — however the magnitude 9 Tohoku quake that induced the catastrophic 2011 tsunami was tons of of instances as highly effective. The epicenter of the earthquake on Wednesday was 20 miles off the east coast of Japan, and about 37 miles under the ocean.

“We often don’t see a harmful tsunami till you get to round 7.5,” mentioned Don Blakeman, a geophysicist with the Nationwide Earthquake Data Middle in Golden, Colo.

However the harm stories had been nonetheless coming in early Thursday morning, and the quake, which might be felt in Tokyo, nearly 200 miles away, did extra than simply rattle nerves in a rustic the place many watch for the earth beneath their ft to maneuver once more at any second.

Two million folks had been left with out energy, if solely briefly, and hearth departments had been known as to rescue passengers trapped in elevators. A bullet prepare carrying about 100 folks between the Fukushima and Shiroshizaou stations derailed, though there have been no stories of accidents. And passengers on subway trains posted movies of automobiles swaying precariously as they made their means by way of tunnels.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida mentioned the nation’s Self-Protection Forces had been mobilized to evaluate the harm.

“We’re nonetheless attempting to grasp the scenario and gather data,” he mentioned at a information briefing. “The federal government will come collectively to save lots of folks’s lives and to make all-out efforts to offer security and supply correct data.”

The depth of the earthquake equaled that of the Kobe earthquake of 1995, which killed greater than 6,000 folks. The distinction was its depth under the ocean.

Many Japanese famous that the quake occurred simply 5 days after the nation noticed the eleventh anniversary of the Fukushima catastrophe.

“One other huge earthquake in Tohoku,” Aiko Sawada, a retired medical researcher, wrote on Twitter. “And so quickly after the anniversary of three.11. I pray that the harm stays minimal.”

After the earthquake in 2011, one of the highly effective ever measured, tsunami waves breached the protecting sea partitions of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant and inundated the ability, resulting in the meltdown of three reactors.

On Thursday, Japanese officers got down to examine nuclear vegetation within the area quickly after the quake hit. They mentioned they’d detected no abnormalities at vegetation in Fukushima; in Onagawa in Miyagi Prefecture; or in Tokai in Ibaraki Prefecture.

The Tokyo Electrical Energy Firm did say {that a} hearth alarm had gone off at one of many reactors on the defunct Fukushima Daiichi plant. The plant has been present process an unlimited cleanup because the catastrophe 11 years in the past.

And water pumps for spent gasoline cooling swimming pools at a separate energy plant in Fukushima had been down early Thursday, however Tokyo Electrical mentioned there was nonetheless water within the swimming pools for now, and that each pumps had returned to operation earlier than 2 a.m., in line with NHK, the general public broadcaster.

The tsunami that crippled that plant left Japan with a formidable problem: How does a quake- and tsunami-prone island nation dotted with nuclear reactors shield towards one other calamity?

To quell lingering fears, Japanese nuclear regulators lately have ordered a flurry of recent security measures on the nation’s reactors, together with new sea partitions, flood gates and safety for the very important backup turbines that energy the pumps that cool the recent reactor cores.

However the job is appreciable, and deep mistrust of nuclear energy persists amongst many Japanese.

On the Hamaoka nuclear energy plant, for instance, which is perched on the Pacific coast west of Tokyo, staff constructed a 72-foot sea wall, among the many tallest within the nation, to guard its three reactors. Then got here the unhealthy information: Scientists engaged on new projections of potential tsunamis within the area warned final yr that waves might attain nearly 74 ft.

Hamaoka stays shuttered, as do a lot of Japan’s different reactors.

A decade later, nuclear energy, which as soon as supplied a few third of Japan’s electrical energy, now accounts for only some %. Thirty-three reactors are able to producing energy — however simply 5 are doing so. The remaining are both present process inspections or awaiting approval to restart.

Motoko Wealthy reported from Tokyo, and Eric Nagourney from New York. Reporting was contributed by Hiroko Tabuchi and Nadav Gavrielov in New York and Thomas Fuller in Washington.