At 19:46 TG-4 was being taken out of service for maintenance. When it was almost completely stopped at 20:09 spontaneous breaker closure occurred and the TG was connected to the grid. Due to this the generator was transferred to the motor regime of operation, which resulted in the loss of tightness in the generator cooling system, discharge and ignition of hydrogen and oil in the location of generator bearings. At 20:10 personnel scrammed the reactor by pressing emergency protection button and called the fire brigade. TG-3 was stopped, the oil from the TGs was drained and hydrogen in the generators was replaced by nitrogen. On the signal of reactor emergency protection deenergization the DGs started as designed. Due to hydrogen release to the turbine building and its reburn under the roof, part of the roof above TG-4 collapsed. The automatic fire-fighting systems actuated as designed. The firemen that arrived fulfilled their job successfully. By 23:30 the fire was completely extinguished. The reactor was cooled down according to Technical Specification. Nobody was injured. Radioactivity releases to environment did not occur.
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, […]
