April 7 Japan earthquake knocks out power lines to Onagawa nuclear plant

In what would have been a scary repetition of the tragedy that unfolded after the quake-tsunami last month, two out of three power lines to Japan's Onagawa nuclear plant were knocked out in the fresh aftershock that occurred in Japan's north-east on Thursday night.

However, the country steered clear of another potentially dangerous nuclear crisis as the Onagawa nuclear plant, which is in Miyagi prefecture, was shut down after the tsunami. The Fukushima crisis erupted after an off-site power failure that led to the disruption of the cooling systems at the plan, leading to partial melt-downs and radioactive leakages.

Tohoku Electric Power is running the Onagawa plant. The epicenter of Thursday's quake was just 20 km from the Onagawa nuclear plant. The 7.1-magnitude has killed at least two people and injured as many as 130 people. Japan's national police agency said an elderly man died of shock while a woman in her 60s died after a power outage hit her oxygen supply.

The tsunami warning that was in place after the quake hit the same region affected by last month's devastating quake and tsunami, but was later canceled. Also, it was reported that there was no fresh damage to the Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear plant. The workers at the plant were reported to be safe.

However, the quake dealt a blow to people in Sendai and other areas in the north-east where life had not returned to normal after the March tragedy. People were already living without power. The new tremor let to power outages throughout the region.