Japanese PM declares atomic power emergency

2011-03-11 19:38:40

TOKYO, March 11 (Xinhua) -- Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan on Friday declared a state of atomic power emergency after an 8.8 magnitude earthquake hit Japan's northeastern Honshu island, but denied any radiation leaks.

The move aims to enable emergency measures in case of any atomic disasters.

Local authorities have called on a total of 3,000 residents living in the neighborhood of a nuclear power plant in Fukushima to evacuate, local media reported.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said some cooling functions were not working at the plant and one reactor cannot be cooled down.

He added the evacuation call is precautionary as no radiation leaks have so far been detected.

And the central government has sent senior officials to the plant to help cope with any emergency.

At a press conference earlier in the day, Edano said that residents near nuclear power plants do not need to take any special actions as no nuclear radiation leaks have been detected so far.


Separately, a fire broke out at a nuclear power plant in Miyagi Prefecture following the massive quake which has so far sent the death toll to 90.

Tohoku Electric Power Co. said that the fire started detected at a building housing the turbine at its Onagawa plant but denied any radiation leaks.

The industry ministry said that there were no immediate reports from monitoring posts of fires or other abnormalities near the nuclear plants.


According to the ministry, 11 nuclear reactors were automatically shut down at the Onagawa plant, Fukushima No. 1 and No. 2 plants and Tokai No. 2 plant.