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Nuclear reactor problem a new headache for designer and China

14 Comments
By Julien MIVIELLE

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14 Comments
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China Syndrome !

5 ( +6 / -1 )

First COVID-19 and now this.

3 ( +5 / -2 )

French energy giant EDF and the Chinese government have sought to ease concerns about a gas build-up at the Taishan Nuclear Power Plant in southern Guangdong province after a CNN report of a potential leak at the site.

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.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

Nuclear is outdated, expensive, requires 1000 years of safe radiation storage and an immense security risk.

-5 ( +0 / -5 )

So 'only' five fuel rods out of 60,000 have damaged cladding. Noble gases are employed to dampen reactions.

Two very human forces at work here. Damage limitation carried out by a) heavy and timed control of information release, b) raising the permitted environmental limits for physical leaks.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Sometimes it is refreshing just to have a story that rings true.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Nuclear remains crucial to any attempts to reach carbon neutral. hopefully these hiccups are easily fixable and don't lead to another disaster.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Nuclear reactor problem poses a new headache for French designer and Chinese government.

This could well be a hiccup, to be amicably resolved.

Yet old reactor woe in Japan has been a constant nightmare for years, continue worrying TEPCO and the government..

0 ( +0 / -0 )

GoodlucktoyouToday 10:40 am JST

Nuclear is outdated, expensive, requires 1000 years of safe radiation storage and an immense security risk.

Outdated ?! In what world ? Or maybe you mean compared to coal or gas ?

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Goodluck, don’t you mean “1,000s of years”?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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.

The Chinses claim there are five damaged fuel rods. The reactor has 241 fuel assemblies with 265 fuel rods per fuel assembly. The Chinese claim is that this, and the resulting noble gasses being emitted due to the rod damage, is within acceptable limits. The French were apparently concerned enough to contact the US for advice (talk about tossing the US a hot yam !). The first signs of the accumulation of noble gasses became apparent last October. EDF thinks the coating on the rods has failed. The reactor probably needs to be shut down so the damaged fuel rods can be removed and replaced and the others inspected. They are not going to just get well sitting in there. It risks more damage and there is no guarantee that the coating problem is confined to those five fuel rods. The problem for the Chinese is the area that reactor services has insufficient generating capacity and a history of power rationing to area factories. So it appears China will try to lie their way through this hoping nothing bad happens until they can shut the plant down without causing the lights to go out in the region.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

I think the UN needs to send a team to investigate

0 ( +0 / -0 )

"The events at Taishan therefore challenge Beijing to explain the facts to its population, even as China has in recent weeks very publicly criticised Japan's handling of its management of the Fukushima waste water cleanup,"

I am opposed to nuclear power plants built anywhere in the world. There are too many unsolved problems inherent in a nuclear power plant other than just how to discharge reactor cooling water. The problem of how to dispose of spent nuclear fuels, nuclear waste, hasn't been solved at all.

One poster said on another thread that there should be no concern because state-of-the-art nuclear technology has solved all these problems

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Accidents such as Chernovil, Three-Mile Island and Fukushima recur one after another however careful humans may be against such accidents.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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