One June 4, 1998 the plant was under 160 MW electrical power operation. At 10.40 a.m. the shift supervisor received an information concerning high level of content of Na in the samples of blow-down lines of SG-16. In the SG3 and SG6 the content of Na exceeded the level established by L&C (2,3mg/kg and 2,1mg/kg instead of permissible 1,5mg/kg). Operational personnel discharged the reactor power down to 80 MWe. At 14.45 were detected and closed two sources of penetration of Na in the secondary circuit. After the reestablishing of the parameters of water the operational personnel increased the reactor power up to 160 MWe. The event caused neither on-site nor off-site radiation impact. Basic rating: Defense in depth criteria: Level 1- Anomaly beyond the authorized operating regime. Upgrading: Safety culture. Additional factor was taken into account according to chapter III-5.3 of the INES manual, namely, the repetition of the event indicated that the previous event lessons have not been learned. The final rating was selected as level 2.
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 […]