Photo: Collected
The cooling pump at the sixth power unit of the Fukushima nuclear power plant (NPP) shut down on Tuesday (18 June) due to a power outage of the reactor's high-voltage power supply control panel, the NPP's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), said.
"Today, at 08:35 a.m. local time (23:35 GMT), the fire alarm system went off at the first underground level of the turbine compartment of the plant's sixth power unit. As a result of the inspection conducted by our company's representative, the absence of an open fire was confirmed, but the presence of smoke at the site was detected," TEPCO said in a statement.
An emergency diesel generator was started after the fire alarm had gone off, the statement read.
Additionally, no significant changes in the level and temperature of the water in the spent fuel pool were detected after the emergency shutdown of the cooling system, the statement said.
The Fukushima NPP suffered a meltdown after being hit by a massive tsunami triggered by a 9-magnitude earthquake in 2011. Since then, water has been continuously pumped in to cool the disabled plant's reactors.
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