No injuries were reported and no radiation was released in the accident at the nuclear power station in the central Japanese town of Hamaoka, said Shigehisa Osawa, a spokesman for Chubu Electric Power Co.
The fire was detected on the roof of a turbine building in a section of the plant containing two reactors that had been shut down earlier for regular inspections, plant worker Yuiichi Kato said. Two other reactors several hundred yards away remained in operation, Kato said.
Firefighters were called and the blaze was confirmed extinguished after 45 minutes, Osawa said. Hamaoka is about 100 miles southwest of Tokyo.
A rubber waterproofing wall was believed to have caught fire when hydrogen gas used to cool the turbine escaped from a roof duct, the Kyodo News agency quoted firefighters as saying. Plant workers had been removing the coolant from the turbine as part of their inspection, the report said.
Osawa said the cause of the fire was still under investigation.
