With the 8.9 magnitude earthquake that hit off Japan’s shore earlier today, the country’s nuclear facilities have also felt the effect. The Japanese prime minister and the industry’s safety agency have said that all plants in the country are safe.
While utilities are currently managing issues with cooling water systems at the Fukushima plant and a fire in the non-nuclear portion of the Onagawa plant, the country’s nuclear reactors have performed as designed and constructed to withstand earthquakes.
According to information on the local reactors from the Nuclear Energy Institute:
The Japan Atomic Industry Forum (JAIF) issued a notice saying all 11 reactors in the north-eastern part of Japan that were operating had shut down automatically. It noted that the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) said no damage to nuclear power plants had been reported as of 3:16 p.m. local time. Japanese prime minister Naoto Kan made a statement on television in which he noted that there was no indication of any radioactive release.
The International Atomic Energy Association (IAEA) has released information as part of an Earthquake and Tsunami Update Page noting that Japanese authorities have Onagawa, Fukushima-Daini and Tokai nuclear power plants were also shut down automatically, and no radiation release has been detected.
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