A man makes his way through split road after a strong earthquake hit Nagaoka city, Niigata prefecture, north-western Japan, yesterday. A 6.8-magnitude earthquake rocked Japan's north-west coast on Monday, killing at least eight people. The quake injured more than 900 people, and flattened hundreds of wooden buildings. - APKASHIWAZAKI, Japan (AP):
A powerful earthquake ripped into Japan's northwest coast yesterday, killing at least eight people and causing a reactor at a sprawling nuclear power plant to spill water containing radioactivity into the sea, an accident not reported to the public for hours.
The 6.8-magnitude morning temblor injured more than 900 people as it toppled hundreds of wooden homes, tore metre (yard) wide fissures on the coastline and buckled the asphalt on highways and bridges. Some 10,000 people fled to evacuation centres as aftershocks rattled the region.
The quake triggered a fire and an unrelated leak of water containing radioactive material at the Kashiwazaki Kariwa nuclear power plant, the world's largest in terms of power output capacity. The leak was not announced until the evening, many hours after the quake.
About 1.2 cubic metres or 1,200 litres of water apparently spilled from a tank at one of the plant's seven reactors and entered a pipe that flushed it into the sea, said Tokyo Electric Power Co. official Jun Oshima. Officials said there was no "significant change" in the seawater near the plant.
"The radioactivity is one-billionth of the legal limit," Oshima said of the leaked water.
In Kashiwazaki city, the quake reduced older buildings to piles of lumber.
Kyodo News agency reported more than 900 people were hurt, with injuries including broken bones, cuts and bruises, and some 780 buildings sustained damage, more than 300 of them destroyed.
