New earthquake hit Japan

Almaty. March 28. Kazakhstan Today - Another earthquake has shaken the north-east coast of Japan, Kazakhstan Today reports.

Another earthquake off the north-east coast of Japan has shaken the already devastated region, BBC News reports.

The 6.5-magnitude quake, 109km (67 miles) east of the badly-damaged port city of Sendai, prompted a brief warning of a possible small tsunami.

A much stronger earthquake on 11 March and the powerful tsunami it triggered killed more than 10,000 people and left many thousands more missing.

Workers are battling to stop radiation leaks at a badly damaged nuclear plant.

There have been no reports of damage or injuries from the latest earthquake, which struck at 0723 on Monday (2223 GMT Sunday), according to the US Geological Survey.

The Japan Meteorological Agency warned that a tsunami of 50cm (18 inches) could hit Miyagi prefecture but later lifted the advisory.

The operators of the Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear plant on Sunday apologised for a "mistake" in reporting a radiation spike 10 million times above normal in one of the site's reactors.

The Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) said a worker taking the reading in a part of reactor 2's cooling system had no time to confirm with a second reading because the radiation level was so high anyway he had to leave the area.

A spokesman for Japan's nuclear watchdog, Hidehiko Nishiyama, said the level of radiation in puddles near reactor 2 was confirmed at 1,000 millisieverts an hour.

The radiation levels are so high, that emergency workers near the contaminated water would have received four times their maximum annual dose of radiation in just one hour.

The BBC's Mark Worthington in Tokyo says the erroneous report has created more confusion around a crisis that is already causing widespread unease in the country.

On Sunday, anti-nuclear protesters held a large rally in Tokyo, calling for change in Japan's nuclear industry.

Meanwhile, efforts are continuing to locate the exact source of the radioactive water leak, amid concerns that the water is leaking directly from the reactor itself.

Earlier, Japan's nuclear agency said that levels of radioactive iodine in the sea near the plant had risen to 1,850 times the usual level.

Reuters reports last week, two workers at Fukushima were injured with radiation burns to their legs after water seeped over their shoes, and on Sunday engineers had to abandon reactor No. 2 after the new reading.

Beyond the evacuation zone around Fukushima, traces of radiation have turned up in tap water in Tokyo 240 km (150 miles) to the south and even in rainwater samples in Massachusetts.

Japanese officials and international nuclear experts have generally said the levels away from the plant are not dangerous for humans, who anyway face higher radiation doses on a daily basis from natural substances, X-rays or plane flights.

In downtown Tokyo, a Reuters reading on Monday morning showed ambient radiation of 0.20 microsieverts per hour, well within the global average of naturally occurring background radiation of 0.17-0.39 microsieverts per hour. In Yamagata, a town about 110 km (70 miles) northwest of the stricken plant, the reading was just 0.15.

Two of the complex's six reactors are now seen as safe but the other four are volatile, sometimes emitting steam and smoke.

The latest death toll was 10,804 people, with 16,244 still missing 17 days after the disaster. About a quarter of a million people are living in shelters.

Damage could top $300 billion, making it the world's costliest natural disaster.

This information may not be reproduced without reference to Kazakhstan Today. Copyright of materials of News Agency Kazakhstan Today.