New 7.1 quake hits Japan as evacuation zone widens

Japan yesterday widened the evacuation zone around a stricken nuclear plant exactly a month from a huge natural disaster as another 7.1 magnitude quake and tsunami alert strained nerves anew.

The latest aftershock caused buildings to sway in the capital Tokyo, shortly after the nation had observed a minute’s silence to remember the 13,000 people killed in the March 11 disaster and the 15,000 who officially remain missing.

The US Geological Survey said the 7.1 onshore quake hit at 5.16 pm (0816 GMT) at a depth of just 13 kilometres. Its epicentre was 81 kilometres south of Fukushima city, near the troubled nuclear plant.

Japan’s meteorological agency warned that a one-metre (three foot) wave could hit Ibaraki prefecture, one of the areas pummelled by last month’s massive tsunami, before cancelling the alert less than an hour later.

Another tremor of 7.1 on April 7 – just one of thousands of aftershocks to hit the traumatised country – killed at least two people and cut electricity across a huge area of northern Japan.

Workers battling to contain the crisis at the Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear plant were evacuated after the latest quake yesterday, which briefly knocked out power to crippled reactors before electricity was restored.

People across the country had paused at 2.46 p.m., the moment Japan’s biggest ever recorded earthquake struck, setting off a chain of events that has left workers scrambling to tame runaway atomic reactors at the Fukushima plant.

It was the worst tragedy to envelop the country since World War II.

Prime Minister Naoto Kan promised on Sunday he would “never abandon” tsunami survivors as he tried to focus attention on the future, despite the continuing high-stakes battle at the nuclear plant.