Quake rocks Japan’s crippled nuclear power plant

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TOKYO — A 5.6-magnitude earthquake shook an area of northeast Japan which includes the tsunami-crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant Thursday but there were no reports of damage to the facility, officials said.

The moderate quake struck offshore near the coast of Fukushima at 7:05 pm (1005 GMT) with a “very shallow” focus, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.

There were no fears of a tsunami following the tremor, the agency said.

“The quake has not caused anything abnormal at Fukushima Daiichi,” Masashi Kato, a spokesman for the plant’s operator Tokyo Electric Power Co., told AFP.

“The plant is continuing its normal operations including the injection of water into the (molten) reactor cores,” he added.

There were no immediate reports of injuries or property damage elsewhere.

A 9.0-magnitude earthquake on March 11 triggered a monster tsunami which killed some 20,000 people and crippled cooling systems at the plant, causing meltdowns in some of its reactors.