Hamburg - A fire broke out Monday in a ventilation system at an idled German nuclear power station near the port city of Hamburg. The plant operator, the Swedish-owned Vattenfall electricity company, said the power station's own fire brigade put out the fire, which it described as the smouldering type, with no flames.
Vattenfall spokesman Ivo Banek said the reactor building at the site was evacuated during the emergency but had since been re-opened.
There was no release of any radioactive substance and nobody was injured.
The plant, one of 17 nuclear power plants still operable in Germany, has been out of commission since its main transformer in a separate building caught fire on June 28 last year. There was no radioactive release in that incident either.
Regulators have demanded perfect repairs of all defects at the site and said last week the work would not be complete till mid-May. Another Hamburg area plant, at Brunsbuettel, is also out of commission after a short-circuit, also on June 28 last year.
