China N-plant gas leak ‘within safe parameters’

BEIJING: Operators of a nuclear power plant in southern China are fixing a “performance issue” at the facility, but the gas emissions carried out to do that are within acceptable limits, its French part-owner said Monday following a US media report of a potential leak.

CNN said the US government has spent the past week assessing a report of a leak at the Taishan Nuclear Power Plant in populous Guangdong province after Framatome, a French firm that partly owns it, warned of an “imminent radiological threat”.

But one of the unnamed US officials cited by CNN said the administration of President Joe Biden believes the facility is not yet at “crisis level”.EDF, the majority owner of Framatome, said the plant´s number one reactor experienced a build-up of noble gases in its primary circuit, which is part of the cooling system. But an EDF spokesman, who asked not to be named, insisted the issue was being handled.”We are not in a scenario of an accident with a melting core,” he said.”We are not talking about contamination, we are talking about controlled emissions.”Noble gases are elements which have low chemical reactivity — in this case it was xenon and krypton.

The gas leaked after the coating on some fuel rods had deteriorated, the spokesman said.The gases were collected and treated as part of a process to remove any radioactivity before their release, which was normal and “in accordance with regulations”, he added.

Framatome said in a statement that the plant was operating “within the safety parameters” despite the “performance issue”. EDF called an extraordinary meeting of the plant´s board over the matter.

David Fishman, manager at energy-focused consulting group The Lantau Group, said a cracked fuel rod can potentially cause a small release of fission materials into the cooling loop, “where it wouldn´t normally be”.“Failed fuel or cracked fuel is a fairly normal and common — undesirable, certainly — but not uncommon phenomenon in the nuclear fuel industry,” Fishman told AFP.