Earthquake, not tsunami, may have damaged cooling system at No. 3 reactor 26 May 2011 Data from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant indicates that the March 11 earthquake--not the tsunami--damaged piping for the emergency core cooling system at the No. 3 reactor, leading to a meltdown, experts said. Tokyo Electric Power Co., the plant's operator, has insisted that a tsunami far exceeding expectations led to the accident at the plant, and that shaking from the magnitude-9.0 earthquake did not cause serious damage to crucial equipment... However, data released on May 24 by TEPCO points to the possibility of quake damage to the high-pressure coolant injection system, which is part of the ECCS and critical in preventing crises at nuclear power plants, experts said.