Many social media users are sharing an image of a fire mishap claiming that it shows an explosion at the Shiga nuclear reactor in Japan, caused by the massive earthquake of 7.2 magnitude that hit the coast of central Japan on January 1, 2024.
“THE SITUATION IS GETTING MORE COMPLICATED: A fire broke out at one of the Japanese nuclear plants A fire broke out at the Shiga nuclear power plant in Japan after the devastating earthquakes that hit the country today, Japanese media reported. (sic)” wrote an X user on the post with the image.
Fact Check
SouthCheck found that the claim is false. The Shiga nuclear reactor is safe and working functioning normally.
On doing a Google Reverse Image Search, we found that Al Jazeera uploaded the same image on January 1, 2024, with the caption, “Fire burns following an earthquake in a residential area in Wajima, Ishikawa prefecture, in western Japan.”
Another website, Kiro7, published a similar image with a caption claiming that the image is of fire in Wajima, Ishikawa prefecture, post-earthquake. The caption reads, “Japan Earthquake This shows a fire occurred following an earthquake in Wajima, Ishikawa prefecture, Japan Monday, January 1, 2024. Japan issued tsunami alerts and told people to evacuate seaside areas after a series of strong quakes on its western coastline.”
We further searched with appropriate keywords to find if any nuclear reactor was damaged due to the earthquake and found a report published by Xinhua News Agency, the official state news agency of China.
The report said that no disruptions happened in nuclear reactors due to the January 1 earthquake. It reads, “Concerns over the safety of Japan’s nuclear power plants (NPPs) were triggered on the backdrop of the Fukushima accident. Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) on Monday said no irregularities have been found at nuclear power plants along the Sea of Japan, including five active reactors at Kansai Electric Power’s Ohi and Takahama plants in Fukui Prefecture.”
Another report published by NHK World-Japan, also said no structural disruption occurred at any nuclear plans in Japan post-earthquake.
Hence, we ascertain that the viral news is fake.
