A strong earthquake with a magnitude of 6.1 jolted northeastern Japan, more than a month after a magnitude-9 quake and tsunami left nearly 30,000 people dead or unaccounted for.
As workers at the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant continued to remove highly toxic water from reactors, hundreds of Japanese police personnel in protective gear today launched a massive search for tsunami victims in a 10-km zone around the radiation-leaking complex for the first time.
A strong earthquake with a magnitude of 6.1 jolted northeastern Japan, more than a month after a magnitude-9 quake and tsunami left nearly 30,000 people dead or unaccounted for.
The undersea quake struck at 5.57 am local time at a depth of just 11.2 km, around 190 km east of Morioka on Honshu island, according to the US Geological Survey.
However, the workers at the Fukushima plant continued the difficult task of removing highly radioactive water from the basements of numbers 1 to 3 reactor turbine buildings.
The level of polluted water in the plant's underground trench was found to be edging up again this morning after some 660 tonnes were pumped out, Kyodo news agency reported.
The removal of some 60,000 tonnes of contaminated water is vital to speed up the work to restore key cooling functions of the reactors lost in the March 11 twin disaster.
According to the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, the water level at the vertical part of a trench had increased by about 3.5 cm this morning from the level recorded yesterday. The level of the water is, however, 2.5 cm lower than just before the water-transferring mission started.
TEPCO is preparing to transfer more highly radioactive water into a facility for nuclear waste disposal in the plant, which can accommodate 30,000 tonnes of liquid.
Hundreds of police personnel in protective white suit, for the first time searched rubble in areas near the plant for victims of last month's tsunami.
Police launched the hunt for around 1,000 bodies believed to have been buried in the debris in areas close to the plant, amid falling radiation levels.
TEPCO also started looking into how to check the quake resistance of already heavily-damaged reactor buildings at the site in line with an order issued yesterday by the nuclear regulatory agency, in light of strong aftershocks from the March 11 quake.
To enhance preparation for dealing with tsunami waves triggered by aftershocks and other emergency situations, emergency diesel power or vehicle-mounted power sources are to be placed at higher ground, while backup units for water injection to the troubled Nos. 1 to 3 reactors are expected to be installed, according to the nuclear agency.
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