Plant was under the 1st refueling operation. Under the reactor vessel situation of 30 deg. C in coolant temperature and 115 feet in coolant level, reactor protection system was tested according to the schedule of overhaul. Soon after removal of the power supply of train "B", Engineered Safety Feature Actuation Signal was generated. All the components related to this signal were actuated. Twelve valves of the safety injection system were opened as designed. Borate d water stored in refuelling water storage tank was flowed into reactor coolant system by gravity and made coolant level increase to 117 feet. As reactor vessel was de-tentioned to prepare refueling, borated water leaked through the flange of reactor vessel. leaked water collected in cavity and returned. In the course of testing, worker has not pushed the reset relay because the step was not contained in the test procedure. There was no evidence of radioactivity increase in containment and no unplanned exposure to employees. Even though this kind of event should be rated as "below scale" according to user's manual part III-3.1.1 we gave some concern in this event because it was related with procedures. So, we rated this event as level "0" finally.
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 […]
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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, […]
