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JAPON, le 16 juillet 2007
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Japan shuts huge nuclear plant after quake
Source Sortir du Nucléaire,
    16 July, NewScientist.com news service and Reuters
     Three major generators at the world's biggest nuclear power plant have been shut down after a powerful earthquake in Japan. The quake caused a brief fire in one of the units, officials from the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) said.
     TEPCO, Asia's biggest utility company, says 1200 litres of water containing radioactive materials had leaked from a unit closed for maintenance at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant, according to the Associated Press.
     The contaminated water was released into the ocean but did not pose a threat to the environment, TEPCO said in a statement. "The radioactivity is one-billionth of the legal limit," TEPCO official Jun Oshima said, according to AP.
     The magnitude-6.8 quake struck at 1013 local time (0113 GMT) on Monday, killing at least four people in the same area as a tremor three years ago that killed 65 people.

Plenty of power
     The nuclear plant is located near the epicentre of the quake and is 250 kilometres (155 miles) northwest of Tokyo. The No.3, No.4 and No.7 power generation units shut down automatically after the earthquake struck.
     Four more units at Kashiwazaki-Kariwa were not operating as they had been shut for maintenance. The leak occurred in one of these – No.6.
     TEPCO could not say when the three units that had tripped offline would be restarted, but an official said it had no immediate plans to increase operations at oil- or gas-fired power plants to make up for the lost capacity.
     "We have plenty of power supplies to cover needs for this week," a company official said. "We'll study the situation closely to decide on our plans beyond next week."

 Maintenance scandals
     The outage comes at a time when Japan's nuclear sector, which generates about a third of the nation's power, is already operating at unusually low levels for the peak demand summer period.
     The industry is already being closely watched by energy traders after maintenance scandals forced a series of nuclear shutdowns that increased use of other fuels, such as oil, gas, and coal.
     Nuclear plants at the country's 10 generating companies operated at an average 62.4% of capacity in June, up from a seven-month low of 61.9% in May, data from the Federation of Electric Power Companies of Japan showed last week. But this was 7.5% lower than in June 2006, while overall power consumption from all sources rose to its highest on record for the month.
     It was also the lowest figure for June since 2003, when the sector was in the grips of one safety scandal that forced TEPCO to shut down all its nuclear facilities, causing a spike in oil consumption as back-up power plants went online.
     A new batch of safety lapses in 2007 forced power companies – excluding the Japan Atomic Power Company – to shut for additional checks this spring, dragging down capacity utilisation.
     The Nuclear Age – Learn more about all things nuclear in our explosive special report.