China nuclear power plant has problems serious enough to warrant shutdown, co-owner warns

French co-owner of a nuclear power plant in China on July 21 warned of problems serious enough to warrant a shutdown. According to CNN, the spokesperson for Electricite de France (EDF) said that the damage to the fuel rods at China’s Taishan Nuclear Power Plant, located in southern Guandong province, are serious enough to warrant shutdown. It was a “serious situation that is evolving,” he said. 

The spokesperson added that if the reactor was in France, the company would have shut it down already due to “the procedures and practises in terms of operating nuclear power plants in France”. The spokesperson further refrained from a direct call on China to halt operations at the plant and noted that it was a decision for its Chinese partner and majority shareholder in the plant - the China General Nuclear Power Group (CGN). 

China denies any danger at plant 

As per reports, back in June, it was revealed that the French company Framatome - an EDF subsidiary that supports operations at Taishan - had warned of an “imminent radiological threat” at the plant, promoting the US government to investigate the possibility of a leak. The firm had also accused the Chinese safety authority of raising the acceptable limits for radiation detection outside the plant in a bid to avoid having to shut it down. However, the Chinese authorities, on the other hand, have denied any danger at the plant, saying that there was “no abnormality in the radiation environment" and the safety of the plant was "guaranteed”. 

The Chinese nuclear safety administration had acknowledged an increased level of radioactivity in the primary circuit in one of the two reactors due to damaged fuel rods. But also said that it was “completely different from a radiological leakage accident" because the "physical barriers are safe”. China even denied raising the acceptable limits of radiation. It said that the levels were "still within the range of allowable, stable operations”. 

Moreover, the agency also previously said only five of the reactor's more than 60,000 fuel rods were affected, adding there was no risk of "radiation leaking to the environment”. But the EDF spokesperson reiterated it was detecting an increase in noble gas in a reactor, and that the company had publicly clarified its position to the Chinese plant's owner and operator, Taishan Nuclear Power Joint Venture Co., Ltd (TNPJVC).

According to the spokesperson, EDF would have shut down the reactor in order to "avoid further degrading of the fuel rods, and carry out an investigation, and avoid further damage to the industrial facility”. 

“But the ultimate decision is up to TNPJVC, which intends to carry out its own analysis," the spokesperson added.

(With inputs from ANI)