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"Performance Issue" at Nuclear Power Plant in Guangdong

posted by Fnord666 on Tuesday June 15 2021, @08:58AM   Printer-friendly
from the performance-issues-happen dept.

takyon writes:

French nuclear firm trying to fix 'performance issue' at China plant

A French nuclear company has said it is working to resolve a "performance issue" at a plant it part-owns in China's southern Guangdong province after an earlier report of a potential leak there.

Framatome, a subsidiary of the energy giant EDF, told Agence France-Presse news agency that it was "supporting resolution of a performance issue" at the plant. "According to the data available, the plant is operating within the safety parameters," it said, adding that an extraordinary meeting of the power plant's board had been called "to present all the data and the necessary decisions".

The statement came shortly after the US TV network CNN reported that Framatome had previously warned the US energy department of an "imminent radiological threat" in a letter.

According to CNN, the letter included an accusation that the Chinese safety authority was "raising the acceptable limits for radiation detection outside the Taishan nuclear power plant in Guangdong province in order to avoid having to shut it down".

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  • (Score: 2) by Rich on Wednesday June 16 2021, @01:21PM

    by Rich (945) on Wednesday June 16 2021, @01:21PM (#1145877) Journal

    I followed up, the tubes definitely should be fully sealed:

    https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/18811248.2010.9711953 [tandfonline.com]

    Money quote:

    The sealing process of end caps to cladding tubes is a fundamental part in the design and fabrication of nuclear fuel elements. In order to
    prevent the escape of fission products and to maintain a good in-reactor performance of nuclear fuel, it is necessary that cladding tubes containing pellets should be hermetically sealed. Cracks in the end cap weld of the heat-affected zone (HAZ) in a reactor have been found to be related to incomplete welds and power ramp.

    This is for a CANDU, but I assume PWRs are not much different. PWRs also run at much higher pressures (300 bar), so a tiny bit of temporary gas buildup is completely irrelevant to the zircaloy tubes, even more so than in CANDUs. It seems the endcap sealing is a science in itself, so it's a good bet they assume these problems have to do something with those.

    Demanding something doesn't mean you'll get it.

    Haha. You have no idea how much German taxpayer money went down the drain to make issues go away, even when someone just was loudly whining. And when the French want the Germans to pay for their atomic mess, some green-aligned German heads will explode. They'll probably do a backroom deal and allow the ECB to "print" a few billion € for the French. (I'm simplifying, it's not called "print"ing anymore, I think the latest term was "quantitative easing").

    Because Xe-135 is a strong fission poison, you have to run the reactor at significantly higher power ...

    This is designed in. The relevant discoveries about Xe-135 behaviour were made at Hanford (iirc, the Rhodes book is really good, they wondered why the reactor suddenly stopped) and Chernobyl (they wondered why the reactor suddenly blew up).

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