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Fire breaks out at Japanese nuclear power plant
Tokyo, July 04: A fire broke out at a nuclear powerplant in central Japan today, a local official said. There were no immediate reports of radiation leaks or casualties.
Tokyo, July 04: A fire broke out at a nuclear power
plant in central Japan today, a local official said. There
were no immediate reports of radiation leaks or casualties.
The fire erupted at an incinerator at an experimental
nuclear plant near the town of Tsuruga in central Fukui
Prefecture, city spokesman Yoshihiro Kadono said.
Smoke was billowing from a hut that housed the incinerator outside the reactor building but on the same compound, Kadono said. The plant was not operating at the time. Japanese public broadcaster NHK said there were no radiation leaks or casualties. A spokesman at the nuclear and industrial safety agency said on condition of anonymity there was no danger of leaking radiation, since it had not been generating power since march. Tsuruga police were unable to provide other details, but confirmed there was a fire.
Japanese media said the sound of an explosion was heard before the fire.
The japanese government decided in 1995 to close down the Fugen plant at the end of march due to high operating costs. It had an output of 165,000 Kilowatts of electricity.
Fugen was designed to burn a mixture of uranium and plutonium as a transition to more advanced fast-breeder reactors, which use plutonium fuel instead of uranium and produce more plutonium that can be used as fuel.
Fugen began operation in 1979 in Tsuruga, 330 kms west of Tokyo. Dismantling it will take 40 years, according to its operators, Japan Nuclear Cycle Development Institute.
Bureau Report
Smoke was billowing from a hut that housed the incinerator outside the reactor building but on the same compound, Kadono said. The plant was not operating at the time. Japanese public broadcaster NHK said there were no radiation leaks or casualties. A spokesman at the nuclear and industrial safety agency said on condition of anonymity there was no danger of leaking radiation, since it had not been generating power since march. Tsuruga police were unable to provide other details, but confirmed there was a fire.
Japanese media said the sound of an explosion was heard before the fire.
The japanese government decided in 1995 to close down the Fugen plant at the end of march due to high operating costs. It had an output of 165,000 Kilowatts of electricity.
Fugen was designed to burn a mixture of uranium and plutonium as a transition to more advanced fast-breeder reactors, which use plutonium fuel instead of uranium and produce more plutonium that can be used as fuel.
Fugen began operation in 1979 in Tsuruga, 330 kms west of Tokyo. Dismantling it will take 40 years, according to its operators, Japan Nuclear Cycle Development Institute.
Bureau Report