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More than 12,000 people were spending a second night in evacuation centres in northwest Japan after an earthquake killed nine people, injured more than 1000 and triggered radioactive leaks from a nuclear plant.
A small fire and a leak of 1200 litres of water containing radioactive materials at Tokyo Electric Power Co's Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant - the world's largest - reignited fears about nuclear safety in a country reliant on atomic power for one-third of its electricity.
Hundreds of homes were damaged and water, gas and electricity supplies were cut by the 6.8 magnitude quake that hit Niigata prefecture on Monday.
Nine elderly people were killed and one person was missing, a Niigata prefecture official said. In hard-hit Kashiwazaki City, a team of orange-clad rescue workers with five sniffer dogs said last night that they were calling off operations for the day.
TEPCO had initially said there was no radiation leak, but late on Monday it said water containing radioactive materials had leaked from a unit at its Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant. Contaminated water reached the sea but had no effect on the environment, the company said, adding that the quake was stronger than its reactors had been designed to withstand.
A fire in an electricity transformer at the plant was quickly extinguished but it was unclear when power units could restart after the trade minister said safety must first be ensured.
Yesterday, the company also admitted that a small amount of radioactive materials - cobalt-60, iodine and chromium-51 - had been emitted into the atmosphere, but that it would take a week or two to figure out the cause.
A Trade Ministry official said the amounts were too small to pose an environmental threat.
Kyodo news agency said about 100 drums containing low-level nuclear waste at the plant were knocked over and some lost their lids, and checks were being made on any environmental impact.
With nearly 800 houses destroyed or damaged in Niigata prefecture alone, it was unclear when people could go home. "I've barely slept," said 35-year-old Kazuko Uchiya, a piano teacher who was at a school-turned-evacuation centre with her 6-year-old son. "I don't know when I can go home. The house is still standing - the structure is okay. But bureaus and shelves have all fallen and I can't get inside. I'm afraid it will shake when I'm inside."
Streets in Kashiwazaki were lined with damaged or collapsed houses, mostly wooden structures with heavy tile roofs, and many roads were blocked because of cracks, causing traffic jams.
Some people worked on repairs, covering damaged roofs with blue plastic sheets, while others picked through scattered rubble. Residents lined up holding plastic bottles for fresh water, which was trucked in by local officials and a contingent of about 500 members of the armed forces.
The Navy shipped in emergency rations and helmeted soldiers in camouflage uniforms made rice balls to hand out at evacuation centres, where crowds huddled sitting on "tatami" straw mats with blankets and a few belongings.
The quake halted gas service to about 35,000 homes and disrupted the water supply to all of Kashiwazaki. More than 25,000 homes were without electricity.
- REUTERS
Standing on shaky ground
Japan, situated on the "ring of fire" arc of volcanoes and ocean trenches that partly encircles the Pacific Basin, accounts for about 20 per cent of the world's earthquakes of magnitude 6 or greater.
A tremor occurs in Japan at least every five minutes, and each year there are up to 2000 quakes that can be felt by people.
The Tokyo metropolitan government said in March last year that a magnitude 7.3 earthquake under Tokyo would probably kill more than 5600 people and injure about 160,000.
German insurer Munich Re said in 2004 that a severe earthquake in the Tokyo-Yokohama area would kill hundreds of thousands of people.
The Tokyo-Yokohama metropolis, with a population of 35 million, has the highest "at risk" rating from natural disasters of any of the world's 30 "megacities".
- REUTERS
