Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電), the nation’s biggest electricity producer, said it had extinguished a fire at a spare transformer at its No. 3 nuclear plant and that the station’s two generating units were unaffected and operating normally.
The transformer, between 100m and 200m from the plant’s reactors, wasn’t in use when the accident occurred, Hsu Hwai-chiung (徐懷瓊), vice president of the state-run utility, said at a press conference yesterday.
‘FAULT’
“Our initial investigation indicates that it was probably caused by a fault in the transformer,” Hsu said.
The fire broke out at around 3:15pm after a sudden surge in pressure triggered an oil leak, Hsu said.
SAFE
The fire was extinguished by 3:48pm without any radiation leaks or injuries, he said.
Taipower operates three nuclear power plants and is building another. Nuclear-fired stations accounted for 21 percent of the country’s electricity output in April, the company’s Web site said.
The No. 3 station is about 6km from the southern beachside Hengchun Township (恆春) and has two units, each with a capacity of 951 megawatts. It started commercial operation in 1983, Hsu said.
THIRD FIRE
The latest fire was the third since the plant began commercial operation.
Taipower said that none of the incidents caused radiation leaks.
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