Aida said that in spite of the fire, he will not revoke his previous approval of the restart of the No. 7 reactor at the facility.
Aida said, The fire this time was not related to the safety of the power plant.
But a Niigata prefecture official said that the fire occurred at such a bad time and which could affect the prefecture’s decision about whether to allow the resumption of the plant’s operations.
The incident occurred as TEPCO is trying to secure final approval from local authorities to restart part of the plant.
According to TEPCO, nobody was injured in the incident and there were no radioactive leaks from any of the plant’s seven reactors, all of the reactors have been suspended since the plant was struck by a major earthquake in July 2007.
Takahashi has apologized to the prefectural officials and the mayor for the fire, the ninth at the plant since the suspension, and guaranteed to inspect the entire facility.
The Niigata prefectural government insisted TEPCO to specify who was responsible for the fires that have occurred so far and present a report on how to prevent a recurrence. The Niigata government also asked local firefighters to provide TEPCO with thorough safety instructions.
Earlier, the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency also reprimanded TEPCO over the fire.
In February 2009, TEPCO has requested an approval for the restart from Niigata prefecture, Kashiwazaki City and Kariwa Village, after the state nuclear safety agency concluded that the No. 7 reactor was clear for a test run. The nuclear power plant includes Kashiwazaki and Kariwa in the prefecture on the Sea of Japan coast.
According to TEPCO, the fire broke out at around 10:20 p.m. April 11, 2009, with a fire alarm detecting smoke near a motor of an air conditioner installed in the warehouse. The fire burned electrical wires and bought under control in about two hours.
