Cooling restarted in No.3 pool

September 3, 2015

TEPCO resumes cooling in No.3 spent fuel pool

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/20150903_29.html

Sep. 3, 2015 - Updated 13:07 UTC+2

The operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has restarted the cooling system for a spent fuel pool at the No.3 reactor, after a temporary suspension due to a leak of oil from heavy machinery.

Tokyo Electric Power Company said it switched off the water circulation system for about 4 hours on Thursday to remove oil that had leaked into the pool. The pool is located on the top floor of the No.3 reactor building.

The pool stores 566 spent nuclear fuel assemblies.

TEPCO officials said the system was switched back on shortly after noon, and that the water temperature taken an hour later was 26.1 degrees Celsius, showing that it had not risen much from what it was before the switch-off.
The utility says the leaked oil remained within the oil fence of the fuel pool and there were no effects on other equipment.

The oil leak occurred at around 8AM during work to remove debris scattered in the spent fuel pool. A pressurized oil hose on heavy machinery used for cutting up the debris hit a component in the pool, causing the oil leak. It stopped when the machinery was turned off.