Feb 24 (Japan Times) - Since last year, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. (Tepco) left two broken seismometers unrepaired at the No. 3 reactor within its Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, officials said Monday.
The instruments at the plant in Fukushima Prefecture did not record the tremors caused by a powerful earthquake that rocked the Tohoku region on Feb. 13 because they were not functioning. In some locations in Tohoku the quake measured upper 6, the second-highest level on the Japanese seismic intensity scale.
The problem was reported during a meeting of the Nuclear Regulation Authority on Monday.
According to Tepco, seismometers for the No. 1 to No. 4 reactors at the plant broke down during the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami that hit the region and triggered a triple meltdown at the power plant.
The company currently measures the strength of earthquakes using seismometers at the No. 5 and No. 6 reactors.
Source: ANNnewsCH
