"We are not in a scenario of an accident with a melting core," an EDF spokesman said at a press conference, seeking to ease concerns after a CNN report of a potential leak at the Taishan Nuclear Power Plant in southern Guangdong province.
EDF reported earlier a build-up of noble gases in one of the two reactors' primary circuits, which is part of the cooling system.
Noble gases are elements which have low chemical reactivity -- in this case it was xenon and krypton.
The gas was released after the coating on some fuel rods had deteriorated, said the spokesman, who asked not to be named.
The gases were collected and treated, and their release into the atmosphere was "normal" and "in accordance with regulations", he said.
Relevant to that, world-class investigator|journalist Jim Stone offered this:
ReplyDeleteChinese nuclear plant -
Nothing is going on there. I know some people hopped on the fear bandwagon but the gases that are "building up" are not actually "building up" (as in pressure) and they are noble gases. There is a small anomaly but it is within design limits. Remember chemistry? what a "noble gas" is? Helium, Neon, Argon etc?
There is nothing going on (unless the chicoms are lying) and that's always a possibility but I doubt the French, who designed the reactor, missed anything.
That's all I'll post. It is simply a non-story. Somthing like Zhou did not get his hands clean enough 5 months ago during refueling and 0.05 grams of paint thinner are now part of the process in the reactor. And I made that up. In other words, NOTHING.
I guess I should not skip stuff like this because people are curious but when I see a non-story I automatically skip it.
What would be a story, or what could turn this into a story is if the FBI (which is rumored to have disappeared in DC but that's a total rumor, thrown in with all the rest of the "empty building" stories in DC (plausible after a coup) - if they and co-horts are stuxnetting China. That could be done, and would lead to anomalies. But I doubt that's what is going on.
JIM STONE, http://82.221.129.208/.ul7.html
Its a new reactor and the biggest in the world. My guess is that they did a fuel change recently, at about 2 years in operation.
DeleteAlso odd that ZH had the story and then disapeared it, so still worth watching. Them reporting just noble gases is not to be taken at face value. If its a fuel rod failure and the rod outer casing material is turning to gas....it means that much more is going on.
Also they could SCRAM this, and maybe bring the problem to a quick halt, and maybe they did. But a build up of pressure enough to be forced to vent is significant. There would be ZERO need to vent noble gases, BTW.
"Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s (TEPCO) Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant in Japan is currently the world’s largest nuclear power plant, with a net capacity of 7,965MW.
Deletehttps://www.power-technology.com/features/feature-largest-nuclear-power-plants-world/
Taishan Nuclear Power Plant doesn't rank in the top 10.
I was talking about the nameplate capacity of each reactor, there are 2 at 1750MW
Deletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taishan_Nuclear_Power_Plant
Not the cumulative plant capacity. It is relevant as bigger is not always better and may be more dangerous. And that may be a contributing factor in why the fuel failed.
The pair of reactors can deliver 3320 MWe net for supply to the grid, making these the most powerful reactors in the world. [2]
DeleteGot it.
Deletesome more details -
ReplyDeletehttps://asiatimes.com/2021/06/chinas-taishan-nuke-reactor-faces-gas-leak-scrutiny/
Hong Kong is monitoring radiation levels ....
Epiphany -- Our old enemies the I131 and I135 are also released along with the Krypton and Xenon.
DeleteKrypton and Xenon are way heavier than Air!!!!