Japan on edge: Tsunami fears trigger Fukushima plant evacuation; 4,000 workers moved to higher ground
Osaka, Japan: Workers at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant were evacuated Wednesday after a powerful 8.7-magnitude earthquake off Russia’s Far East triggered widespread tsunami warnings across the Pacific.
A spokeswoman for TEPCO, the operator of the Fukushima plant, which suffered a meltdown following a 2011 tsunami, confirmed that all employees had been evacuated as a precaution. “No abnormality has been observed at the site,” she told AFP.
Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, which operates the tsunami-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, said about 4,000 workers are taking shelter at higher grounds on the plant complex while monitoring remotely to ensure plant safety.
Its release of treated radioactive wastewater into the sea is also temporarily suspended as a cautionary step.
The tsunami, sparked by the undersea quake, struck coastal areas of Russia’s Kuril Islands and Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido. Japan’s Meteorological Agency reported the first wave, measuring about 30 centimetres (one foot), reached Nemuro on Hokkaido’s eastern coast. Officials warned that larger waves could follow, with tsunami warnings extending down Japan’s eastern seaboard as far as Wakayama, south of Osaka.
In Russia, a wave hit the coastal town of Severo-Kurilsk, the main settlement in the Kuril Islands. Governor Valery Limarenko said residents had been moved to higher ground and were safe, awaiting an all-clear signal.
Philippine authorities warned provinces and towns along the archipelago’s eastern coast facing the Pacific of possible tsunami waves of less than 1 meter (3 feet) that could hit between 1:20pm to 2:40 pm (local time) and advised people to stay away from the beach and coastal areas.
“It may not be the largest of waves, but these can continue for hours and expose people swimming in the waters to danger,” Teresito Bacolcol of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology told The Associated Press.