China admitted radioactive leak at its Taishan nuclear power plant after covering up the incident

Small number of damaged fuel rods caused radioactive gas buildup at Taishan nuclear power plantChinese authorities announced on Wednesday, ruling out any danger.

The American television channel CNN on Monday reported a possible “leak” in this plant located in southern China and which has the only advanced EPR reactors, a design running on pressurized water, which have entered service in the world.

The American network said that the French company Framatome had warned of an “imminent radiological threat”.

Until, Beijing had put the risks into perspective and explained that the levels of radioactivity at the plant were normal.

This Wednesday, the Chinese Ministry of the Environment and the Nuclear Safety Authority gave the first technical explanations.

In a joint statement, admitted an increase in radioactivity inside one of the reactors caused “by about five damaged fuel rods”.

This phenomenon has been classified as “common” by the authorities, due to “uncontrollable factors” during the manufacturing, transportation or installation processes at the factory.

Fuel rods contain uranium pellets and they provide the energy that powers a nuclear reactor.

The increase in radioactivity at the plant is “within the limits of the regulatory parameter” and “there is no leak” into the environment, the statement said.

The French company EDF, which holds 30% of the capital of the Taishan plant with the Chinese operator CGN, reported on Monday the presence of “rare gases”. in the primary circuit of the first reactor.

The commissioning of state-of-the-art EPR reactors has been years behind schedule in similar European projects in the UK, France and Finland.

The Taishan plant, commissioned in 2018, was the first in the world to operate a state-of-the-art EPR nuclear reactor, a pressurized water design that has been the subject of several years of delay in similar European projects in the UK, France and in Finland.

The factory, located in Taishan City, near the south coast of Guangdong and the financial center of Hong Kong, now has two EPR units.

EDF, the majority shareholder of Framatome, said in a press release that it had requested an extraordinary meeting of the plant’s board of directors.

The website of the Chinese regulator, The National Nuclear Security Administration has recorded only one incident in Taishan in recent months, on April 5, in which “a small amount of radioactive gas entered unexpectedly.” in the waterproof pipe of the first unit in the factory.

The statement said the incident had already been inspected and the total amount of gas released was 0.00044% of the annual emission limit.

However, it is not clear whether the April incident is related to the recent situation reported by Framatome.

With information from AFP

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