Fire breaks out at northern Japan nuclear plant

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
A small fire broke out at a northern Japan nuclear power plant Friday, but no one was injured and there was no risk of radiation leakage, a power company official said. A piece of plastic sheeting apparently caught fire around 11:10 a.m. in the turbine building of the No. 2 reactor at the Tomari nuclear power plant in Japan's northernmost main island of Hokkaido, said Toru Honda, an official with plant operator Hokkaido Electric Power Co. The reactor, one of two at Tomari, was undergoing routine checks and was not operating at the time of the fire, according to Honda. Employees quickly put out the fire but firefighters were called to the scene as a precaution. No one was injured in the blaze and there was no possibility that radiation leaked out because the fire took place at a site where no radioactive materials are handled, Honda said.