From 28 to 29 May 2004 a scheduled plant shutdown for repairing a primary leakage (gland of a control valve ) inside the containment was carried out. In the course of the restart on 28 May (criticality at 22 h 48), at about 50°C, the reactor was made critically for warming-up. During that process, which is closely monitored by the operator to switch over timely the neutron flux monitor ranges (eight decades) to prevent a Scram, he did not fully recognize the positive temperature coefficient of the fuel near to the end of the cycle (power increased to approx. 4% of rated power and a water temperature of 142 °C). This caused a significantly higher warm up rate than it is specified in the Technical Specification, which has to be controlled in periods of 30 min. Although the operator recognized the excessively high heat-up rate within that period and cooled down the reactor coolant system, the average rate of 56°C/h was violated. The following evaluation of consequences (stress calculation), required by the Technical Specification as a condition for further proceeding with the warm-up was not done timely. The calculation showed later that no negative impact of the event occurred.
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, […]
