Why did the cooling system stop?

November 22, 2016

TEPCO to study cooling system stoppage

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20161122_40/

Tokyo Electric Power Company says it will study whether an appropriate response was made when a cooling system at the Fukushima Daini nuclear power plant stopped briefly after Tuesday's earthquake.

The system that cools the spent nuclear fuel pool at the No.3 reactor went down about 10 minutes after a strong quake struck off Fukushima Prefecture in the morning.

TEPCO didn't inform all the news media of the incident until nearly 2 hours later. Utility officials said the powerful quake and tsunami warning may have caused confusion. They said they will work to ensure that they are able to take appropriate and swift actions in times of emergency.

The officials said it restarted the cooling system about one hour and 40 minutes later, and that no abnormalities have been detected.

They said they believe the pumps stopped after the agitated water in the pool activated an alert system.