Sunday Times 2
Fukushima workers evacuated as small tsunami hits Japan
View(s):TOKYO, Oct 26 (AFP) -Workers at the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant were evacuated when a small tsunami hit Japan after a powerful undersea quake today, highlighting the continued threat to the area devastated by the 2011 quake-tsunami.
The government Meteorological Agency warned people to stay away from the Pacific coast for nearly two hours as the tsunami, which was recorded as being as high as 55 centimetres (22 inches) in one place, rolled ashore.
Two workers who had been patrolling wells used to measure underground water at Fukushima sought higher ground after the tremors struck, an official with the plant’s operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) said while adding there were no new problems at the facility.
Another nuclear plant, at Onagawa, was the site of the largest wave recorded on today — 55 centimetres — but there were no problems reported there.
All of Japan’s 50 viable reactors are currently shut down.
The 7.1-magnitude quake struck at a shallow depth of 10 kilometres (six miles) at 2:10am local time (1710 GMT Friday), just over 300 kilometres southeast of Ishinomaki in Miyagi Prefecture, according to the US Geological Survey.
The country’s meteorological agency said the quake was an aftershock of the March 2011 tremor.