Plant was in start up after refuelling. Reactor power was 35% when at 21:27 turbine trip occurred which caused reactor to scram. The reason for the turbine trip was low pressure of Electro-Hydraulic (EH) fluid in the EH control system of the turbine-generator. Investigation showed that low pressure of the EH fulid was due to leaking EH fluid dump valve. Seals on all four dump valves were replaced. When "reactor trip" signal was initiated only one reactor trip breaker opened, the second did not react and was declared inoperable. Since only one trip breaker is necessary to trip the reactor, the trip sequence proceeded normally and the reactor was stabilized at "no load" parameters. No violation of breaker A was caused by deteriorated Undervolgate Output Card of the Reactor Solid State Protection System which was replaced. Initiator expected - reactor trip Safety function availability within operational limits and conditions Table II, B1 level 1.
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, […]
