This past week there was a major power outage at the Fukushima Dai-ichi power plant in northeaster Japan, site of the world’s worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl .
The Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in northeastern Japan.
While the outage in and of itself is worth covering, what makes the story particularly interesting is the cause behind the outage — a rat.
Specifically, a 6-inch rat.
Investigators figure the vermin to be the cause of the outage as its carcass was found inside one of the plant’s temporary electric switchboards.
Photo released by Tokyo Electric Power Co. shows the carcass of a small animal lying inside a temporary electric switchboard at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant. (AP Photo/Tokyo Electric Power Co.)
Masayuki Ono, spokesman for Tokyo Electric Power Co., said that the rat was the likely cause of the outage, but further investigation is necessary.
The outage raised concerns globally as the plant’s cooling systems for four storage pools for nuclear fuel were knocked offline on Monday. Power was finally restored at all nine affected facilities early Wednesday morning.
The story is an unfortunate reminder that the power plant is far from fully fixed, two years after tsunami-damaged backup generators set off the disaster.
Experts estimate fully decommissioning the Fukushima reactors will take several decades.
Story via: cbc.ca
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