No radiation leak after fire at Japan's TEPCO plant

TOKYO (Reuters) - No radiation has leaked after a minor fire broke out late on Saturday at a warehouse located on the same grounds as a quake-damaged nuclear plant that remains shut, Tokyo Electric Power Co said on Sunday.

It said in a statement that an alarm at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant, the world's largest, alerted it to a fire at around 10:24 p.m. (1324 GMT), which was confirmed put out at 12:15 a.m. (1515 GMT).

TEPCO said it was investigating the cause of Saturday's fire, which NHK public broadcaster said was the ninth reported at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa facility since it was closed after a powerful earthquake rocked northwest Japan on July 2007.

Saturday's fire could complicate TEPCO's efforts to reassure local authorities that all safety issues have been addressed and there were no problems to restarting one of the nuclear reactors.

Kyodo news agency quoted a local official in Niigata prefecture as saying: "The timing is just bad, and it's hard to say this won't have an influence (on the reactor restart)."

Authorities in Niigata, where the plant is located, on Friday put off a decision on whether to allow TEPCO to take steps to restart the plant.

The governor of Niigata prefecture, one of three local leaders that must approve the move, has said he wanted to consult the prefectural assembly before making his decision.

He has said he believes the plant's security has been largely secured from a technological point of view, but that there was still a need to build a consensus among the inhabitants.