"Fukushima Plant’s Cooling System for Spent Nuclear Fuel Stops"

"Tokyo Electric Power Co. (9501), the operator of the Fukushima Dai-Ichi plant, said a cooling system for one of its spent fuel pools at the crippled nuclear station stopped today."



"Tepco, as the company is known, expects the cooling system to resume operating by the end of today, it said in an e-mailed statement. It would take about two weeks for the pool to reach 65 degrees Celsius (149 degrees Fahrenheit), the regulatory safety limit, from the 15.1 degrees Celsius recorded at 2 p.m., it said.

The earthquake and tsunami of March 2011 caused three meltdowns and a massive release of radiation at the Fukushima plant, forcing about 160,000 people to evacuate and leaving neighboring areas uninhabitable for decades. Last month, a rat caused a blackout at the plant, highlighting the vulnerability of its power and cooling systems more than a year after the government said its damaged reactors had been brought into a stable state, known as cold shutdown."

Tsuyoshi Inajima reports for Bloomberg April 5, 2013.

SEE ALSO:

"Power Restored to Japan Nuke Plant Cooling System" (AP)

"Fukushima Cooling System Fails for Second Time in a Month" (AP)

Source: Bloomberg, 04/05/2013