On July 13, 1998 unit 2 was under 160 MW power. According to the approved programme testing of emergency feed water pumps (EFP) was performed. The test showed EFP-B non-operability. By switching on the EFP-A it switched on, however in 3 minutes it was switched off by the pump protection. Operating personnel did not decrease the reactor power after the testing, as it should be made according to the OL&C. The EFP-A operability was restored in 3 hours 10 min. The EFP-B operability was restored in 6 hours 20 min. A repeated testing was performed without notes. The event caused neither on-site nor off-site radiation impact. Justification of the rating: Basic rating: Defense in depth criteria: level 1 according to the Table 1, part III of the INES User's Manual. Upgrading: safety culture. Additional upgrading factor was taken into account according to chapter III-5.3 of the INES manual, namely, the violation of OL&C without justification. The final rating was selected as level 2.
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, […]