Thursday, July 19, 2012

Two incidents in European nuclear plants

Minor in principle but you never know, specially as everything nuclear is shrouded in secrecy and industrial-military conspiracy.


Sizewell (near Suffolk, Great Britain)

According to UBALERT:

Sizewell B nuclear power station on the Suffolk coast has had its second automatic shutdown in four months. Owner EDF Energy said electricity production had ceased at 17:11 BST on Wednesday and it was investigating the cause of the stoppage. A spokesman said: "The reactor was safely shut down, with the plant responding as expected and at no time was anyone's safety at risk." The plant had an 11-day automatic stoppage in March. EDF said it was not predicting when the plant would begin generating again. The company said the March shutdown had been the first automatic one in three years and was for an electrical fault in the non-nuclear side of the plant. There was a controlled stoppage in May to fix a lubrication problem. EDF Energy said Sizewell B produced enough electricity for two million homes, or about 3% the UK's electricity needs.


Ringhals (near Götteborg, Sweden)

Per Reuters:

Sweden's Ringhals-2 nuclear reactor was shut down on Thursday morning, less than nine hours after being restarted, due to a technical glitch, the Nordic power exchange said in a market message.

The 865-megawatt (MW) pressurized water reactor's trip was caused by an elevated high-steam generator level after it was restarted at 1930 GMT on Wednesday, it added.

The reactor was previously shut a month ago due to oil leakage from a transformer, and was expected to be back in full operation after maintenance by Thursday evening.

Ringhals-2 is one of the four reactors at the plant south of Gothenburg, 70 percent owned by Swedish state energy group Vattenfall and 30 percent held by German E.ON .

Nuclear generators supply 40 percent of Sweden's power needs.


Hat tip to Ex-SKF blog (link 1, link 2).

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