Japan's nuclear reactor, which last week restarted for the first time in more than 13 years after surviving a The powerful 2011 earthquake and tsunami that severely damaged the nearby Fukushima nuclear plant was shut down again today due to an equipment problem, its operator said, the Associated Press reported.
Reactor No. 2 of the nuclear power plant "Onagawa" off Japan's northern coast was restarted on October 29 and was expected to start generating power in early November.
But five days after its restart, it had to be stopped again due to a failure on Sunday in a device related to neutron data in the reactor, the operator of the plant "Tohoku Electric Power" ( TEP/Tohoku Electric Power Co. ).
The reactor was operating normally and there was no release of radiation into the environment, TEP said. The utility company said it decided to shut it down to re-inspect the equipment and address residents' safety concerns. No new restart date was specified.
The reactor is one of three at the Onagawa plant, which is 100 km north of the Fukushima Daiichi plant, where three reactors melted down after a 9.0-magnitude earthquake and tsunami in March 2011, released large amounts of radiation.
The Onagawa plant was hit by a 13-meter tsunami caused by the earthquake, but was able to keep its critical cooling systems operating in its three reactors and achieve a safe shutdown.