Potential problems may be building up at Chinese nuclear plant... 8

[JohnRBaker]

China's nuclear power giant CGN dismisses reports of leak warning at a Guangdong facility, says indicators 'normal'

https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202106/1226129.shtml

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
EX-'Product Evangelist'
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without

 

[byrdj]

whats' a little krypton and xenon going to hurt

 

[electricpete]

a bit more info in this link

https://www.world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/Chinese-EPR-experiences-performance-issue

...Taishan 1 has entered the second fuel cycle and is currently operating at full power,

..."At present, continuous monitoring of environmental data shows that the environmental indicators of the Taishan nuclear power plant and its surroundings are normal."

...EDF said today it has been informed of the increase in the concentration of certain noble gases in the primary circuit of Taishan 1. However, it noted this is "a known phenomenon, studied and provided for in the reactor operating procedures".

I imagine they are talking about fission product noble gases like Xenon.

It is Framatome EPR design.

It's tough to say what's going on. Fission products are expected in the primary coolant in small amounts and can increase due to various imperfections of the fuel elements / cladding. It doesn't sound that bad, since they are remaining at full power. If it were a big problem with potential for large scale radioactive release, they'd undoubtedly be reducing power or shutting down.


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[byrdj]

i thought "EPR" stood for European Pressurized Reactor

 

[electricpete]

yes pwr not bwr. i edited my post.

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[Alistair_Heaton]

Anyone knowledgeable on reactor chemistry?

I seem to remember elevated xenon is a indicator of it having been in an iodine pit.

 

[DrZoidberWoop]

He's delusional, send him to the infirmary. Honestly, we will never really know what happens over there.

 

[hokie66]

Surely the Global Times can be trusted!

 

[thebard3]

Just found this on a news website--

“It’s clear that some gas leaked from the fuel rod, but did the pressure vessel that contains the fuel rods also fail?” Henry Sokolski, executive director of the Washington-based Nonproliferation Policy Education Center, said to Al Jazeera. “And if you’re really unlucky, did the containment building fail? Because when a containment building fails, radioactivity can be released into the atmosphere and that is not good.”

That should be good enough to keep the 24 hour news cycle reporting all kinds of conjecture for weeks and making comparisons to Chernobyl.

Brad Waybright

The more you know, the more you know you don't know.

 

[thebard3]

Very limited information coming out but this sounds to be the result of cladding failure. If so, I believe the only option to fix it is to shut down and refuel the freshly refueled reactor.

Brad Waybright

The more you know, the more you know you don't know.

 

[Alistair_Heaton]

I am reading its just been refuelled.

Suppliers of the rods is Framatome which is part of EDF. And there is some problems with the cladding.

And they had a build up of noble gas and did vent to atmosphere to get rid of it.

And the region is struggling with covering demand and they don't want to shut it down to see what has happened to the rods.

thebard you posted while I was writing yep that's what I am reading as well. But there is going to be major power issues in the area so they want to keep it up and running until demand comes down.

 

[davefitz]

If the fuel rods were supplied by framatome then it is one more mark against the french nuclear supply chain for the new EPR's. There were other fabrication "anomalies" in the pressure parts supplied by Le Creusot at Flamanville 3 , and weld issues of its main transfer piping . Perhaps it will lead to more delays at Flamanville 3 and HPC. How quickly we lose our "savoir faire".

"...when logic, and proportion, have fallen, sloppy dead..." Grace Slick

 

[moon161]

sacre bleu! the savoire-fair is turning into je ne sais quois!

 

[moon161]

They'll have to call the quebecois, because ils, ses souviennent

 

[EdStainless]

And after a re-fuel you never know if it was one of the new rods or one of the old ones that got moved to new location.
This isn't an uncommon issue, but it does require addressing. Things like this don't get better on their own.

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
P.E. Metallurgy, consulting work welcomed

 

[Alistair_Heaton]

https://www.msn.com/en-xl/news/othe...w-headache-for-designer-and-china/ar-AAL5wiC?

5 rods seem to be a problem which would indicate that they know which ones.

been an issue since October.

 

[electricpete]

Here's what wiki says

On April 11, 2021, the Chinese National Nuclear Safety Administration reported that another level 0 incident occurred on April 5, resulting in the unexpected release of radioactive gas into the atmosphere. Post-accident investigation calculated the amount of radioactive release to contribute to 0.00044% of annual limit, well within safety parameters.[19]

On June 14, 2021, CNN reported that the Taishan Nuclear Power Plant had a suspected leak, based on a report by Framatome communicated to the United States on June 8.[20]. Said incident is the level 0 incident previously reported on April 11, 2021. Further details provided by Framatome revealed that the issue was build-up of xenon and krypton inert fission gases in the primary circuit of Taishan 1, potentially from a leak in a fuel rod housing. The build-up was described as "known phenomenon" which is well covered in the plant's operating and safety procedures. No radioactive gases has been released to the environment and the EPR reactor design used in Taishan is considered to be one of the safest in use.[21]

On June 15, Japan reported that its radiation monitoring posts, the closest of which is at Yonaguni Island, did not measure any "abnormalities in data".[22]

Li Ning, a nuclear scientist based in the United States, criticized CNN as "making a mountain out of a molehill", explaining that it was unrealistic to expect "zero failure" in the fuel claddings. Li extended the critic to the West media as "often unwilling to put risks into proper perspective", "killing" the Western nuclear industry.[23]

On June 16 2021, The Ministry of Ecology and Environment of the People's Republic of China released a conversation dialog with representative from the National Nuclear Safety Administration. There was estimated 5 out of 60,000 fuel rods (0.01%) in reactor core 1 suffered from cladding defects. The ratio was well within design maximum fault rate of 0.25%. CGN stated there had been no release of radiation from the plant, and the small increase in the level of radioactivity was confined to the primary coolant circuit.[24][25]

They talk about 60,000 fuel rods, I guess a rod is a smaller element than what I thought (many US PWR's have < 200 fuel rods).

Noteable the first report mentioned above was back in April. But in fact the fuel rod problem was known since last October as mentioned earlier("EDF said this week it was first informed about the problem with the fuel rods in October, but only learned about the gas build-up on Saturday, according to EDF.")

I gather maybe last October was the refueling and they accepted a sub-optimal fuel rod condition at that time. Now this spring they started seeing some of the expected (minor) fission products from that sub-optimal fuel rod condition.

An increase in fission product radioactivity in primary coolant, nothing unusual released to the environment. It doesn't sound particularly newsworthy other than maybe business news (there may be some business implications for Framatome).


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[bones206]

As someone who's done a fair amount of design and construction of nukes in China, seeing this headline in the disasters forum gave me a mini heart attack. Glad to see it's nothing serious...

 

[dik]

Why to the US? I thought they were partners with the China project.

Rather than think climate change and the corona virus as science, think of it as the wrath of God. Feel any better?

-Dik

 

[electricpete]

> Why to the US? I thought they were partners with the China project.

Yup that is strange. The story goes something like this:

https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/14/politics/china-nuclear-reactor-leak-us-monitoring/index.html

The US government has spent the past week assessing a report of a leak at a Chinese nuclear power plant, after a French company that part owns and helps operate it warned of an "imminent radiological threat," according to US officials and documents reviewed by CNN.

The warning 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, according to a letter from the French company to the US Department of Energy obtained by CNN.

Despite the alarming notification from Framatome, the French company, the Biden administration believes the facility is not yet at a "crisis level," one of the sources said.

While US officials have deemed the situation does not currently pose a severe safety threat to workers at the plant or Chinese public, it is unusual that a foreign company would unilaterally reach out to the American government for help when its Chinese state-owned partner is yet to acknowledge a problem exists. The scenario could put the US in a complicated situation should the leak continue or become more severe without being fixed.

Yup, it's unusual for the French company Framatome to reach out to the US about their reactor in China.
That French company also does plenty of business in the US and other parts of their business would be subject to regulation by US authorities. They are also working through licensing EPR in the US.
The US regulator would certainly encourage open communication about things under their jurisdiction, with prompt reporting requirements in certain circumstances.
One might speculate Framatome contacted the US regulator out of an abundance of caution to keep on the good side of their US regulator? That seems more likely to me than that they did it out of some desire for the US regulator to intervene. But you never know.

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