Dhruva reactor was in shutdown state since 24.8.94 for refuelling and other maintenance works. After removal of irradiated assembly, when a fresh fuel assembly was being lowered in pile position K-13, the assembly could not be lowered beyond the gauge ring region. Several attempts were made with wet storage block. The fresh fuel assembly which had seen the obstruction in the pile was inspected, and it was found that one of the 5 leaves of the bottom bulge had got bent. Subsequent investigations revealed the cause of the incident to be the use of improper gauge ring for the pile position K-13. The event is rated at level 0 of INES scale. The incident took place during reactor shutdown and involved fresh fuel. There was no significant implication for the safety of the plant as there was no radioactive release nor was there any radiation exposure due to the incident.
Hence as per Section III-3.13 para. 2, the event is rated at level 0.
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, […]
