Japanβs western coast was hit by an earthquake followed by a tsunami on Monday. Authorities say that while the natural disaster affected several nuclear power plants to some extent, there have been no signs of any βabnormalitiesβ so far.
In March 2011, the country was battered by devastating tremors and gigantic waves that left 18,000 dead and caused meltdowns at the Fukushima nuclear power plant β the biggest such incident since the 1986 Chernobyl explosion in Soviet Ukraine.
The initial quake measured seven, the maximum intensity specified by the Japan Meteorological Agencyβs Shindo seismic scale, which assesses the tremorβs severity at the surface.
