Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant

The release of wastewater from Japan's stricken Fukushima nuclear plant was temporarily suspended on Friday following an earthquake, its operator said.

A 5.8-magnitude jolt struck off the coast of the northeastern Fukushima region, home to the plant wrecked by a tsunami in 2011, at 00:14 am Friday (1514 GMT Thursday), the Japan Meteorological Agency said.

The first phase of releasing treated wastewater from Fukushima that has angered China will end on Sept. 11 as planned, the stricken Japanese nuclear plant's operator said.

TEPCO added that levels of radioactive tritium in tested seawater samples near the plant in north-east Japan were within safe limits, according to a statement late on Sept. 7.

The tsunami-wrecked Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant 's operator says it began releasing its first batch of treated radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean on Thursday — a controversial step, but a milestone for Japan's battle with the growing radioactive water stockpile.

Japan's new prime minister on Oct. 17 said the planned mass disposal of wastewater stored at the tsunami-wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant cannot be delayed, despite concerns from local residents.

More than one million tonnes of contaminated water from the destroyed Fukushima nuclear plant will be released into the sea

Japan has decided it will start releasing radioactive water accumulated at the damaged Fukushima nuclear plant into the sea after treatment, infuriating local residents and worrying neighbouring countries.

The decision comes a decade after the nation's worst-ever atomic disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station.

Nine years after a devastating tsunami sparked disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, clean-up and decommissioning continues at the crippled facility.  

 AFP was granted rare access to reactor control rooms and other parts of the plant for an update in the months before the Tokyo Olympics.

Japan made significant changes in the safety standards of nuclear power reactors due to the severe disaster in Fukushima in 2011 when a nuclear power plant damaged by a tsunami caused serious environmental problems.

The Fukushima nuclear power plant may have been leaking radioactive water since April, its owner has admitted.

An earthquake with a magnitude of 6.1 has been detected off the coast of Japan.
The US Geological Survey said that the earthquake struck about 286km south east of Kamaishi, and around 321km east of Fukushima.
The depth of the earthquake, which struck at 2.37am local time, was measured at 10km. Details of any damage are yet to emerge.