Chinese media reported on Thursday that the fire broke after an explosion at the plant's transformer. No leaks of nuclear fuel were reported. One person is reported to have been injured, according to the Hong Kong Ming Pao newspaper.
"The breakdown did not occur in the reactor, but in a transformer, which was produced in Ukraine. As a result, I don't think it will affect Russian positions on the Chinese energy market," Sergei Tsyplakov, a Russian trade representative in China, said.
The Tianwan power plant, located in the port city of Lianyungang in the eastern province of Jiangsu, is being built by the Russian nuclear equipment and services exporter Atomstroyexport under a 1992 agreement.
In May this year, Russia signed a contract with China to build a new uranium enrichment plant in the country and to supply uranium. The cost of the uranium enrichment facility, to be built near Lanzhou in north China's Gansu province, will exceed $1.5 billion, according to Russian nuclear chief Sergei Kiriyenko.
Atomstroyexport is currently building five nuclear power plants in China, India and Iran, under contracts worth a total of $4.5 billion.