Unit was under cold shutdown. Moderator was in dumped condition. While normalising moderator system, a temporary ion exchange column was hooked up on series with normal purification IX column. This was connected by reinforced PVC hose. 15 minutes after valving in the additional column, the hose was found to have come out resulting in spillage of heavy water which resulted in higher Tritium concentration in accessible areas. Reactor Building exhaust fan with higher capacity was started to reduce the Tritium concentration. Investigations revealed that an improper hose and clamp of incorrect size was used for connection of temporary ion exchange column. Justification: The incident has been considered as if it has taken place in non reactor installations because the reactor was in cold shutdown state and the moderator was in dumped condition and moderator heavy water was being circulated from the storage tank only and as such it was in no way connected with the reactor. As per users manual clause IV 3.3 the incident is rated at level 1 due to deficiency in safety culture.
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, […]
