With the unit shut down and reactor coolant system (RCS) at 295 deg. F (146 C) and 350 psia (2,413 kPa), plant operators were preapring to place one train of shutdown cooling into service. When they opened the motor-operated suction valve for the "B" low pressure safety injection pump, indicated pressurizer level decreased from 35% to offscale low, and RCS pressure decreased to 100 psia (689 kPa). Operators closed the pump suction valve to terminate the coolant loss, and tripped the operating reactor coolant pumps due to low RCS pressure. Approximately 5,500 gallons (20,818 litres) of coolant flowed from the RCS to the refueling water storage pool. Pressurizer level was restored after operators manually started one of the high pressure safety injection pumps. The licensee declared an ALERT emergency classification due to this event. Justification of the rating: This event was rated as level 2 in accordance with Section IV-3.2.1.3 (a) of the 1998 Draft INES User's Manaul, as an event with an actual initiator of possible frequency and safety function operability within operating limits and conditions.
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, […]
