抖阴ap

TOKYO — Japan’s nuclear safety agency has told plant operators to check and improve outside power links to avoid earthquake-related outages similar to those causing the country’s current nuclear crisis.

A magnitude-5.9 aftershock jolted the region north of Tokyo today, but there were no initial reports of damage or risks from tsunamis similar to the one last month that crippled the Fukushima Daiichi power plant, causing Japan’s worst-ever nuclear plant disaster.

Thirteen nuclear plant operators, including Tokyo Electric Power Co., or TEPCO, which runs the radiation-leaking Fukushima plant, were told to check disaster resistance and report back by May 16, Hidehiko Nishiyama of the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency told reporters late Friday.

Meanwhile, the newspaper Asahi Shimbun reported that a secret plan to dismantle TEPCO was circulating within the government. The proposal calls for putting the privately held company under close government supervision before putting it into bankruptcy and thoroughly restructuring its assets. The report could not be immediately confirmed.

Power outages during a strong aftershock on April 7 drove home the need to ensure that plants are able to continue to operate crucial cooling systems and other equipment despite earthquakes, tsunamis and other disasters, Nishiyama said.

Utility companies were ordered to reinforce the quake resistance of power lines connected to each reactor or to rebuild them. They also must store all electrical equipment in watertight structures. The massive 46-foot wave that swamped Fukushima Daiichi last month knocked out emergency generators meant to power cooling systems. Since then, explosions, fires and other malfunctions have compounded efforts by TEPCO to repair the plant and stem radiation leaks.

Earlier, the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency had ordered plant operators to store at least two emergency backup generators per reactor and to install fire pumps and power-supply vehicles as further precautions.