Fire broke out at a nuclear power plant in northern Germany Thursday but was isolated from the atomic reactor, police said.
The blaze began at the Kruemmel power plant in Geesthacht, 30 kilometres (20 miles) southeast of Hamburg on the Elbe river, when coolant in a large electric power transformation substation ignited. It was extinguished about 90 minutes later.
A police spokesman said it was unclear what had caused the fire but added there was no danger of a radiation leak. The reactor was nevertheless shut down as a precaution.
No one was injured in the blaze.
Witnesses saw a giant black column of smoke pouring out of the site. About 100 firefighters battled the blaze with foam.
"It looked worse than it apparently was," a spokesman for the fire brigade said.
It was unclear when the plant would be back online.
Separately, another nuclear power plant in Schleswig-Holstein, Brunsbuettel, was temporarily shut down Thursday about two hours before the Kruemmel fire because its capacity was overloaded, authorities said.
Germany has begun a long-term phase-out of its nuclear energy programme and expects to mothball its last plant around 2020.
The Social Democrats, partners in Germany's left-right government, approved the move under former chancellor Gerhard Schroeder on the grounds that nuclear power poses a risk to public safety.
But Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives oppose the plan, saying that Germany has little chance of slashing greenhouse gas emissions if deprived of atomic energy.
Source: Agence France-Presse
