Cooling of Fukushima Daiichi's No. 5 unit resumes after hose replaced+

TOKYO, July 3 Kyodo -
Cooling of the No. 5 reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant was resumed after it was suspended Sunday to replace a damaged hose in the cooling system, plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. said.
The cooling function was turned off at 10:15 a.m. after a worker on patrol found seawater leaking from the makeshift plastic hose in the residual heat removal system earlier in the morning, according to the utility known as TEPCO.
The hose, with a diameter of about 20 centimeters and which carries seawater, had a tear about 30 cm long and 7 cm wide in a part where it was curved in a U-shape.
The temperature of the reactor unit was 43.1 C at 8 a.m. Sunday, and it rose around 5 C during three-and-half-hour cooling suspension, TEPCO said. It would take about 22 hours from the time the cooling was suspended for it to reach water's boiling point of 100 C, the utility added.
After the March 11 earthquake and tsunami ravaged the plant in Fukushima Prefecture, the No. 5 reactor achieved a stable state of ''cold shutdown'' because workers were able to use the residual heat removal system to prevent it from overheating.