A strong aftershock of magnitude 5.9 today jolted Japan as its workers scrambled hard to stabilise the radiation-leaking Fukushima nuclear plant, where the level of highly toxic water in a reactor’s tunnel had risen.

The new quake struck the Kanto region in eastern Japan at 11:19 a.m. local time and was centred about 79 km below the ground in southern Ibaraki prefecture, according to the country’s Meteorological Agency.

There were no initial reports of damage from the tremor, which shook the buildings in Tokyo as well, more than a month after a monster 9.0 magnitude quake and tsunami left nearly 30,000 people dead or unaccounted for.

The quake came hours after the Government’s nuclear safety agency asked the operators of 13 nuclear plants across the country to step up their preparation to avoid outages and other damage to the facilities in the event of an earthquake.

Last month’s twin disaster has caused massive damage to the Fukushima nuclear plant which continues to leak high radiation into the air and sea.

Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), the embattled operator of the plant, said the level of highly radioactive water in a tunnel of the No.2 reactor has been rising, national broadcaster NHK reported.

Contaminated water in the plant’s facilities is hampering the efforts to restore reactor cooling systems. Leakages of such water into the sea and the ground are also raising concern.

TEPCO transferred about 660 tonnes of wastewater from the tunnel to a condenser in a turbine building on Wednesday. This lowered the water level in the tunnel by 8 cm but it began rising again, exceeding the previous level by 2.5 cm this morning.

Related Topics
comment COMMENT NOW