A small radioactive leak was detected at a Japanese nuclear power plant
after a strong earthquake struck the region last week, the operator
said Thursday.
Chubu Electric Power Co. said it detected "a slightly higher
level" of the radioactive element iodine 131 in an exhaust filter, but
added that the amount was so small that "it would not harm human
health".
A magnitude-6.4 quake hit August 11 in Suruga Bay on the
Pacific Ocean coast, leaving one person dead and 120 injured while
damaging thousands of buildings and forcing two nuclear reactors to
shut down automatically.
The operator reported no major incidents after the quake at
the Hamaoka nuclear plant, located on a peninsula jutting into Suruga
Bay.
But the company said it had detected a slightly higher level
of iodine 131 from a filter removed from an exhaust tower for one of
the reactors.
It said the concentration was so low that, even over the
span of one year, the radioactivity would have reached only one
20,000th of the level considered safe for people.
The company said it was studying whether the leak was caused by the quake.
Japan, which has the world's second largest economy but
virtually no energy deposits, relies on nuclear power for about
one-third of its electricity demand and aims to boost the figure to 40%
by 2010.
Japan is hit by about 20% of the world's major earthquakes.