Fire at Japanese nuclear plant

TOKYO: A fire broke out on Friday at a nuclear power station near Japan's stricken Fukushima Daiichi, the plant at the centre of the world's worst atomic crisis since Chernobyl, its operator said.

Embattled Tokyo Electric Power Co. said the blaze started in the basement of an annexe to the reactor number one at Fukushima Daini.

The fire, which broke out on a power distribution board for lights, was immediately put out by plant workers, a TEPCO spokesman said.

"There are no reports on injuries or any leakage of radiation because of the fire," he said.

Firefighters are investigating what triggered the blaze, he added.

Fukushima Daini's four reactors were put in a state of cold shutdown following the magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami that hit the area on March 11.

The quake-tsunami seriously crippled the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, leading to meltdowns at three of its reactors.

The Fukushima Daiichi and Daini plants are about 10 kilometres (six miles) apart.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011