JAPAN: June 16, 2008


TOKYO - Water containing a small amount of radiation leaked within a Tokyo Electric Power Co nuclear power facility located in northern Japan, where a strong earthquake hit on Saturday, company officials said.


The water leaked out from the pool in the warehouse that kept of radioactive waste at TEPCO's Fukushima Daini nuclear power plant, an official at Fukushima Daini said.

"No water has leaked outside of the warehouse," the official said, adding TEPCO has confirmed that there was no impact on the environment.

TEPCO's two nuclear plants in Fukushima, including Fukushima Daini, were operating normally, Asia's top power company said.

The two plants have a combined power capacity of 9,096 megawatts.

TEPCO's Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant, the world's biggest, located in Niigata prefecture in northwestern Japan, has been shut down since a major earthquake last July.

Beside TEPCO, nuclear power facilities run by Tohoku Electric Power Co located in northern Japan were also operating normally after the powerful earthquake.

"We haven't found any problems at our Onagawa and Higashidori nuclear plants after the earthquake," an official at Tohoku Electric said.

A strong earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 7.2 jolted northern Japan at 8:43 a.m. (2343 GMT) on Saturday, killing three people

Tohoku's Onagawa plant, located in Miyagi prefecture, has three units with a combined capacity of 2,174 megawatts.

The official said one unit at Onagawa has been closed due to a routine maintenance, while two other units were operating normally.

The official said no problem has been found at its 1,100 megawatt Higashidori nuclear plant. The plant is located in Aomori prefecture and has been closed for maintenance.

A Japanese oil refining facility located in northern region were unaffected, but small geothermal and hydroelectric power facilities were shut down after the earth quake.

Japan's top refiner Nippon Oil Corp's 145,000 barrel-per-day Sendai refinery was not damaged.

The quake had no impact on operations because the refinery has been shut since earlier this month for scheduled maintenance, a Nippon Oil official said.

Another official at Tohoku Electric said one geothermal power generating plant in Akita prefecture and a total of six hydroelectric power plants in Iwate and Miyagi prefectures have shut down after the quake.

"The plants were shut down after the earthquake. We are currently investigating the situation," an official at Tohoku Electric said. (Reporting by Chisa Fujioka, Osamu Tsukimori and Chikafumi Hodo; Editing by Louise Heavens)


REUTERS NEWS SERVICE