The New York Times reports on an earthquake in Japan.
TOKYO, July 16 — A pair of powerful earthquakes shook Japan’s northwestern coast about 14 hours apart, killing at least eight people and injuring more than 800.
Hundreds of buildings were flattened or damaged to some degree, including the world’s largest nuclear power plant, which suffered a minor equipment fire and a leak of a small amount of radioactive water into the Sea of Japan. The utility that owns the plant said the leaked water posed no environmental threat.
Thousands of people were left homeless by the damage done by the first earthquake, which struck at 10:13 a.m. on a national holiday in Japan. The quake, its strength estimated at 6.8 on the Richter scale, was centered off the cost of Niigata, a prefecture that was hit by a devastating earthquake in 2004. Skyscrapers in Tokyo, about 130 miles southeast of Niigata, swayed for almost a minute from the tremor.
Japan has always had a lot of earthquake problems, I wish for a speedy recovery to all affected!
Btw, how can radioactive leakage not pose an environmental threat?
July 17th, 2007 at 8:35 pm
Yes, this is one sad case. I mean, Japan is a really nice place but earthquake is just so hard on them. And to think they most buildings in Japan are built to survive earthquakes! Think of the money they have to spend to get things fixed every now and then. Now you know why the Japanese work so hard!
I think it is easier for them to deny the threat! It makes everyone feels better, and you want everyone to feel better after an earthquake. Hey, at least they didnt say that the radioactive water was non-radioactive at the time of leakage.