Mysterious smoke at Niigata plant

Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc on Thursday said it had detected smoke billowing from a service room near two reactors at its Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant in Niigata Prefecture, located on the west coast of Honshu island.

Tepco said there was no radiation leak as a result of the possible fire that occurred close to its reactors facing the Sea of Japan, although the utility has yet to comment on a possible cause.

The plant operator said it noticed smoke billowing out of a locker room inside the service building near its No 6 and No 7 reactors. It said the service building was not a radiation-controlled area.

The two reactors close to the possible fire which occurred at some point before 3:25 pm local time are currently being screened by Japan’s nuclear regulation authority as Tepco is pushing for more of the plant’s reac- tors to be brought back online.

However, Tepco, operator of the Daiichi plant in Fukushima that underwent multiple meltdowns after being hit by an earthquake-triggered tsunami in 2011, resulting in the worst commercial nuclear disaster in history that has yet to be fully brought under control, has been involved in a number of controversial incidents since the 2011 disaster.