On 4 February, 1997 the plant was under 365 MW electrical power operation with two working turbogenerators. At 6:31 a.m. one of the turbogenerators was disconnected from the grid and tripped by the control and protection system. The reactor power was decreased in order to maintain the parameters of primary and secondary circuits. At 6:34 the reactor was shut down by the control and protection system because of drop of level in the steam generators 1-3. The investigation revealed that the cause of generator disconnection was short circuit in one of the relays on the protection system of the disconnected generator. The plant was returned to normal operation the same day after replacement of the failed relay. The deviation caused neither on-site nor off-site radiation impact. Justification: As full safety functions were available, the event is rated at level "0" as per user's manaul, part III.
A vast subsea nuclear graveyard planned to hold Britain’s burgeoning piles of radioactive waste is set to become the biggest, longest-lasting and most expensive infrastructure project ever undertaken in the UK. The project [UK's nuclear waste dump] is now predicted to take more than 150yrs to complete with lifetime costs of £66bn in today’s money...The […]
Last year, the Dutch Province of Limburg started an alliance in which, besides the local government, research institutes, small nuclear reactor (SMR) developers, utilities, industrial customers and funders cooperated. With this "Limburg SMR alliance" Limburg tried to lead the way towards an SMR in Limburg. The preferred site for a first SMR would be Chemelot, […]
From the IPFM: During a visit to the Civaux nuclear power plant on 18 March 2024, France's Minister of the Armed Forces unveiled a plan to use the plant to produce tritium for the French nuclear weapons program. Civaux is a civilian power plant that belongs to and is operated by Electricité de France. According […]
An analysis by the Norwegian NGO Bellona of transborder trade operations with the customs code 840130 (irradiated fuel assemblies or fuel elements) show a more than twofold increase of import to EU countries of fresh nuclear fuel in cash terms – from 280 million Euros in 2022 to 686 million Euros in 2023. In physical […]
The French government has said it is "seriously" studying the option of building a plant to convert and enrich reprocessed uranium to cut its reliance on Russia following the invasion of Ukraine. The only plant in the world that currently converts reprocessed uranium for use in nuclear power plants is in Russia. "The option of […]