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Strong quake rocks Japan, nuclear plant

By KOJI SASAHARA, Associated Press Writer 8 minutes ago

KASHIWAZAKI, Japan - A strong earthquake struck northwestern Japan on Monday, causing a fire and minor radioactive water leak at one of the world's most powerful nuclear power plants and turning buildings into piles of lumber. At least seven people were killed and hundreds injured.

The quake, which left fissures 3 feet wide in the ground along the coast, hit shortly after 10 a.m. local time and was centered off Niigata state. Buildings swayed 160 miles away in Tokyo. Sirens wailed in Kashiwazaki, a city of about 90,000, which appeared to be hardest hit.

Japan's Meteorological Agency measured the quake at a 6.8 magnitude and said a 6.6 magnitude quake was among the aftershocks. The U.S. Geological Survey, which monitors quakes around the world, said the initial quake registered 6.7.

The plant leaked about a half-gallon of water in the building housing one of the reactors, said Katsuya Uchino, another Tokyo Electric official.

Uchino said the water contained a tiny amount of radioactive material — a billionth of the guideline under Japanese law — and is believed to have flushed into the Sea of Japan. A company statement said the leak had stopped and that there had been no "significant change" in the seawater under surveillance and no effect on the environment.

The reactor automatically shut down at the time of the leak, the report said. The quake triggered a fire at an electrical transformer at the plant, but plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. said earlier in the day that the reactor was not damaged.

Japan sits atop four tectonic plates and is one of the world's most earthquake-prone countries. The last major quake to hit the capital, Tokyo, killed some 142,000 people in 1923, and experts say the capital has a 90 percent chance of suffering a major quake in the next 50 years.

In October 2004, a magnitude-6.8 earthquake hit Niigata, killing 40 people and damaging more than 6,000 homes. It was the deadliest to hit Japan since 1995, when a magnitude-7.2 quake killed 6,433 people in the western city of Kobe.

Now cnn has it listed as 315 gallons....gee...we might be getting closer to the truth...lol