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| Pump in Cooling System of Damaged Fukushima Reactor Stops | |
| (about 11 hours later) | |
| TOKYO — The operator of Japan’s wrecked nuclear plant said Monday that a pump used to cool one of the damaged reactors had stopped, possibly because of human error, in the latest problem at the facility. | |
| The operator, the Tokyo Electric Power Company, or Tepco, said it was able to use a backup pump to restart cooling immediately on Monday morning. | The operator, the Tokyo Electric Power Company, or Tepco, said it was able to use a backup pump to restart cooling immediately on Monday morning. |
| The stopped pump served the No. 1 unit, one of three reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi plant that were destroyed in March 2011 when a huge earthquake and tsunami knocked out cooling systems. The fuel cores in the overheating reactors melted down, causing violent explosions that destroyed the reactor buildings. | The stopped pump served the No. 1 unit, one of three reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi plant that were destroyed in March 2011 when a huge earthquake and tsunami knocked out cooling systems. The fuel cores in the overheating reactors melted down, causing violent explosions that destroyed the reactor buildings. |
| The pump that halted on Monday was part of a makeshift cooling system that dumps hundreds of tons of water a day onto the three damaged reactor cores. Tepco said the shutdown might have been due to a faulty electric switchboard, a problem that has stopped the cooling systems before. | |
| However, the Nuclear Regulation Authority, the government’s nuclear watchdog, gave an alternate explanation in a news release, saying a worker might have accidentally shut down the main pump by hitting the stop button during a routine check. | However, the Nuclear Regulation Authority, the government’s nuclear watchdog, gave an alternate explanation in a news release, saying a worker might have accidentally shut down the main pump by hitting the stop button during a routine check. |
| Either way, the incident is the latest in a string that has undermined public faith in the ability of Tepco to handle the plant’s cleanup, prompting the government to intervene. Last week, the company said workers had spilled 114 gallons of radioactive water when they mistakenly tried to put water in a tank that was already full. | Either way, the incident is the latest in a string that has undermined public faith in the ability of Tepco to handle the plant’s cleanup, prompting the government to intervene. Last week, the company said workers had spilled 114 gallons of radioactive water when they mistakenly tried to put water in a tank that was already full. |