Meltdown alert at Fukushima nuclear reactor after workers trip power to cooling system while trying to ward off RATS
Operators of Japan's stricken
Fukushima nuclear power plant lost the ability to cool radioactive fuel
rods in one of its reactors for three hours today after workers tripped
the power supply while trying to ward off rats.
It was the second failure of the system to circulate seawater to cool spent fuel rods at the plant in the past three weeks.
Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco) said it was alerted by an alarm that the cooling system for the No 3 reactor had shut down at around 2.27pm (5.27am GMT) after a power board failed.
Technicians fixed the problem by about 5.20pm, the utility said.
Tepco said workers appeared to have had inadvertently caused the power outage when they were trying to install a net to keep small animals from crawling into the reactor building.
A rat caused a power outage at Fukushima last month when it triggered a circuit breaker by bumping into exposed wires.
In that case, the cooling system was shut down for almost a day.
The
utility has faced a range of problems with controlling ground water and
maintaining the massive cooling system built to keep the reactors
stable.
The plant was the site of the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl in March 2011 when a magnitude-9 earthquake triggered a tsunami that destroyed back-up generators at Fukushima and disabled the plant's cooling system.
Three of the reactors melted down.
Work to decommission the plant is projected to take decades to complete.
It was the second failure of the system to circulate seawater to cool spent fuel rods at the plant in the past three weeks.
Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco) said it was alerted by an alarm that the cooling system for the No 3 reactor had shut down at around 2.27pm (5.27am GMT) after a power board failed.
Safety alert: Workers at Japan's Fukushima
nuclear plant lost the ability to cool fuel rods in reactor 3 (seen here
after the earthquake in 2011) after tripping the power supply while
setting up a rat trap
Crippled: The plant was the site of the worst
nuclear disaster since Chernobyl in March 2011 when a magnitude-9
earthquake triggered a tsunami that destroyed back-up generators at
Fukushima
Tepco said workers appeared to have had inadvertently caused the power outage when they were trying to install a net to keep small animals from crawling into the reactor building.
A rat caused a power outage at Fukushima last month when it triggered a circuit breaker by bumping into exposed wires.
In that case, the cooling system was shut down for almost a day.
Workers appeared to have had inadvertently
caused the power outage when they were trying to install a net to keep
small animals from crawling into the reactor building
The plant was the site of the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl in March 2011 when a magnitude-9 earthquake triggered a tsunami that destroyed back-up generators at Fukushima and disabled the plant's cooling system.
Three of the reactors melted down.
Work to decommission the plant is projected to take decades to complete.
