On May 10, 1993 at 1:53 steam line radiation monitor RM31 indicated increase in count rate. The N-16 monitors detected primary to secondary leak through steam generator #1. Calculation gave leakage rate of 45 litres/hour which was below the Technical Specification limit of 79 liters/hour. The decision was to shut down the plant preventively not to wait for daily limit. At 2:08 the operator crew started with power decrease. At 2:10 abnormal procedure PRI-2 (Steam Generator Tube Leak) was activated. Abnormal event in accordance with emergency plan was declared at 2:45. At 7:20 the reactor was shutdown by normal operating procedure. The abnormal event was cancelled at 11:25. During the event no safety system operation was required. There was no abnormal release of radioactivity to the environment.
Everywhere you look, the nuclear industry’s hype machine is in overdrive. Goldman Sachs, Microsoft, and the UK government all tout small modular reactors as the silver bullet for climate change and energy security. Tech billionaires are hiring nuclear veterans. Wall Street is whispering about “round-the-clock power” for artificial intelligence data centers. For those old enough […]
Kernenergie en veiligheid: A wargame sought to test if a major radiological release that would prompt the evacuation of millions of civilians in South Korea could distract key US allies from assisting and rebuffing an all-out military invasion of Taiwan. The short answer was yes. The game originally presumed that China, wanting to keep the […]
Big batteries and EVs to the rescue again as faults with new nuclear plant cause chaos on Nordic grids The Finnish nuclear power plant Olkiluoto was finally connected to the grid last year, at an estimated cost of €11 billion compared to the original budget of €3 billion. That cost blowout forced its developer, the […]
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, […]