Unit was operating at 175 MWe and spent fuel discharge was in progress. First pair of spent fuel bundles were received at the Inspection bay in an open tray called the Insert (meant for receiving spent fuel bundles) attached to a Transfer Arm (T/A). The T/A was rotated and aligned to the spent fuel storage bay port in order to discharge the bundles to storage bay. When the T/A Ram was advanced to push the bundles, the front end bundle got stuck at the storage bay port entry and due to the Ram force, the rear end bundle got lifted and toppled out of the insert. The event was caused by the partial detachment of three pencils in the circumference at the storage bay port entry causing the above incident. Even though one bundle had fallen down and pencils were detached, there was no damage to the pencils and the fuel cladding was intact and there was no radioactivity release. Dropping of a spent fuel assembly can be classified as a real, possible initiator. Safty function was fully available. Hence the event can be rated as Level-1 under A-2R category of Table-1 of user's manual.
An analysis by the Norwegian NGO Bellona of transborder trade operations with the customs code 840130 (irradiated fuel assemblies or fuel elements) show a more than twofold increase of import to EU countries of fresh nuclear fuel in cash terms – from 280 million Euros in 2022 to 686 million Euros in 2023. In physical […]
The French government has said it is "seriously" studying the option of building a plant to convert and enrich reprocessed uranium to cut its reliance on Russia following the invasion of Ukraine. The only plant in the world that currently converts reprocessed uranium for use in nuclear power plants is in Russia. "The option of […]
Jan vd Putte quickly changed from dressing as the pied piper at the protest during the IAEA nuclear power conference to warn for the Russian nuclear power conglomerate Rosatom and its role in Ukraine.
Anke Herold, Executive Director Oeko-Institut, Freiburg (Germany), in Brussels about the claim to triple nuclear by 2050: IPCC scenarios vs forecast development of nuclear.
