A small amount of water used to cool radioactive spent fuel rods at a Japanese nuclear reactor leaked into the Sea of Japan as a result of a massive earthquake that struck the country yesterday, though officials of Tokyo Electric Power insisted it posed no danger.

The leak took place at one of the seven units at the company's sprawling Kashiwazaki-Kariwa facility, the largest nuclear-power-producing site in the world. The unit, one of the two newest at the site, was designed by General Electric and is similar to about half of the reactors in the United States.

About 1.5 liters of slightly radioactive water spilled out of the cooling pool for spent fuel rods, leaked into another supply of water, and 315 gallons of that water were pumped into the sea, said Hiro Hasegawa, the manager of corporate communications at Tokyo Electric Power, by telephone.

Separately, a fire broke out at an electrical transformer at the site.

"This was a very, very small amount of water," said Hasegawa. "Even if it has some radiation, it doesn't have any impact on the atmosphere or the environment."

[The Associated Press reported that Tokyo Electric did not reveal the accident for hours after a 6.8 magnitude earthquake struck Japan's northwest coast.

[At least nine people were killed, and about 900 were injured as the earthquake toppled hundreds of wooden homes and tore 3-foot-wide fissures in the ground. Highways and bridges buckled, leaving officials struggling to get emergency supplies into the region.

[Some 10,000 people fled to evacuation centers as aftershocks rattled the area.]

 Read full report