Brief fire at Japan nuke plant, no radiation

["Sandy Perle" <sandyfl@earthlink.net>]

Brief fire at Japan nuke plant, no radiation

TOKYO, Feb 24 (Reuters) - In the latest accident involving Japan's 
troubled nuclear industry, a fire broke out at a power plant but was 
extinguished after half an hour and there was no danger of radiation, 
a utility spokesman said on Thursday. 

The fire at the Onagawa Number One nuclear plant, owned by Tohoku 
Electric Power Co Inc <9506.T>, occurred in the basement of a 
building not directly involved in nuclear power generation, the 
spokesman for the power company said. 

He said he had no other details about the fire or what had caused it. 
The 524-megawatt reactor at Onagawa, about 300 km (186 miles) north 
of Tokyo, was shut down for maintenance on January 17 and was set to 
resume operations in early April. 

Last September, Japan was shocked by the nation's worst-ever nuclear 
accident at a uranium processing plant in Tokaimura, about 140 km (90 
miles) northeast of Tokyo. 

That accident, caused by workers putting seven times the proper 
amount of condensed uranium into a mixing tank, exposed 440 people to 
radiation, including one plant worker who later died. 

In a sign of growing public concern about nuclear safety, the 
governor of Mie Prefecture in western Japan said on Tuesday that a 37-
year-old plan to build a nuclear power plant in the prefecture should 
go back to the drawing board. 

In response, Chubu Electric Power Co said it would scrap the plan. 

Following fierce criticisms of the government for a slow response to 
the Tokaimura accident, Japan's parliament last December enacted a 
set of bills aimed at strengthening nuclear safety measures. 

The Tokaimura accident, which occurred when workers, ignoring proper 
safety procedures, used a bucket to transfer uranium and triggered a 
nuclear chain reaction was ranked four out of seven on an 
international scale of nuclear accidents. 

Despite September's accident, the government says resource-poor 
Japan, whose 51 nuclear reactors provide about 30 percent of its 
energy needs, will forge ahead with its nuclear power programme, 
which calls for another 20 reactors to be built by 2010. 

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Sandy Perle					Tel:(714) 545-0100 / (800) 548-5100   				    	
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