On February 24 the operators noticed trend of increase of the temperature of the axial bearing of the motor of the Reactor Coolant Pump #2 as indicated by one of the two temperature sensors. On February 25 morning the trend increased so the decision was brought to start manual shutdown of the plant to prevent the temperature of the bearing to go above 90 degrees C which is a limit set by the pump motor producer. The starting shutdown rate of 10 MW/min was later increased to 20MW/min but at 28% of the reactor power at 2:09 hours the reactor was manually tripped to keep the temperature limit. The trip sequence went in accordance with the design. The pressure transient on the secondary side caused a 7.6-mm pipe of the extraction steam to open and the leak damaged a local fire protection installation. The investigation of the event concluded that the cause of the high temperature indication was a deteriorated temperature sensor and not actual increase of the temperature.
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, […]
From the IPFM: During a visit to the Civaux nuclear power plant on 18 March 2024, France's Minister of the Armed Forces unveiled a plan to use the plant to produce tritium for the French nuclear weapons program. Civaux is a civilian power plant that belongs to and is operated by Electricité de France. According […]
An analysis by the Norwegian NGO Bellona of transborder trade operations with the customs code 840130 (irradiated fuel assemblies or fuel elements) show a more than twofold increase of import to EU countries of fresh nuclear fuel in cash terms – from 280 million Euros in 2022 to 686 million Euros in 2023. In physical […]
The French government has said it is "seriously" studying the option of building a plant to convert and enrich reprocessed uranium to cut its reliance on Russia following the invasion of Ukraine. The only plant in the world that currently converts reprocessed uranium for use in nuclear power plants is in Russia. "The option of […]