On the 11th of February 2021, the on duty operator realized that according to the Nitrogen Monitoring system, the pressure of the monitoring space no. 18/7 has decreased to 800 mbar (however it still has not reached the value described in OL&C). After consulting leaders it has been decided to refill the monitoring space no. 18/7. The operator refilled the monitoring space no. 18/7 using the nitrogen charge tool and trolley. The trolley’s certificated pressure gauge indicated 2.8 bar pressure at the beginning of the refill. This was the 5th refill of the monitoring space no 18/7. The number of refilling of the monitoring spaces is limited by the OL&C. Before staring the fifth refilling some measures had to be taken according to the OL&C, which were not taken into account by the staff.
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, […]
