3 April 2011, 17:15 UTC (13:15:00 Sunday April 3 ET) According to the IAEA, Japanese authorities have informed the IAEA that on April 3, for the first time since the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, off-site power is being used to power the pumps that are injecting fresh water into the reactors at Units 1, 2 and 3. Previously, temporary electrical pumps were used to inject water. The switch to off-site power happened at 03:02 UTC (12:02 Japan time) for Unit 1, 03:12 UTC (12:12 Japan time) for Unit 2, 03:18 UTC (12:18 Japan time) for Unit 3.
Perhaps the most significant difference between what transpired at the Daini and Daiichi nuclear power plants, which according to TEPCO both experienced a 14 meter tsunami, is that off-site power was restored to Daiini very rapidly, at least by March 12, and by March 15 all reactors at Daini were successfully brought to a cold shut down. At Daiichi in contrast, it has taken three weeks to restore off-site power to the reactor cooling system pumps.
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