A fire broke out at a nuclear power station in southern Taiwan shortly before midnight on Sunday, forcing the shutdown of one of its two reactors.

The fire at the Third Nuclear Power Plant in Pingtung County set off an alarm at 11:58 p.m. and was put out by the plant's own firefighters 17 minutes later, the Taiwan Power Company (Taipower) said.

The plant is continuing to operate as normal, though it is estimated that it will take two weeks to get the second reactor operational again.

The fire began began inside an auxiliary electrical transformer.

The incident has caused no radioactive contamination, Taipower said in a statement on its website.