April 7 Japan earthquake: Radiation levels rise inside Onagawa nuclear plant

The epicenter of the fresh tremor was just 20 km away from the Onagawa nuclear plant, which has been safely shut down after the quake and tsunami in March.

Tohoku Electric Power, the operator of the plant, said on Friday water leaked out of spent fuel pools of three reactors at the plant after the quake.

We detected a small rise in radiation levels inside the reactor buildings, and are trying to find the locations of the leaks, a Tohoku Electric said. We see no change in radiation levels outside the reactor buildings.

It had been reported earlier that two out of three power lines to Japan's Onagawa nuclear plant were knocked out by the fresh aftershock.

The Fukushima crisis erupted after an off-site power failure led to the disruption of the cooling systems at the plant, leading to partial melt-downs and radioactive leakages.