International.
The cooling system of the third reactor at the Fukushima nuclear power plant has stopped circulating water after the powerful 7.3-magnitude earthquake recorded offshore in Japan. TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power) said it managed to restart the system about 90 minutes after the failure.
The cooling system servicing Unit 3 was unable to circulate water to cool the nuclear fuel due to a broken bomb, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Agency.
The temperature in the pool rose to 28.7 degrees Celsius. It takes up to seven days for temperatures to rise to 65 degrees Celsius, which is the upper operational limit, the Japanese nuclear agency said.
At such a pace, the failure of the cooling system did not pose an "immediate danger", although the agency admitted the "gradual" increase in temperatures.
The exact cause of the cooling system shutdown is unknown. However, the system could have been "shaken" during the quake, according to nuclear agency officials. The station's storage pool currently contains 2,544 spent fuel rods. No cooling water leaks have been reported or other "abnormalities" have been reported.
