Reactor Core Isolation Cooling (RCIC) Turbine insulation caught fire. Improperly completed maintenance on the RCIC turbine caused a bearing oil leak that soaked the turbine insulation. The oil soaked insulation was heated to combustion by a leaky steam admission valve. An operator on a routine tour noted what he thought to be steam or smoke emanating from the RCIC turbine. He returned a few minutes later with another operator and began to investigate by removing a piece of the insulation. This act allowed air to reach the heated oil and the fir started. The fir burned for about 15 seconds and was put out by a portable fire extinguisher. The turbine sustained no damage from the fir. Justification: In accordance with the guidance contained in section III-2.10 of the INES manual, this event was rated using Table 1. Since all safety functions remained fully available, a rating of zero is appropriate.
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 […]
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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, […]