China nuclear plant operators release gas in bid to fix issue

Gas was deliberately released from a nuclear power plant in southern China as operators work to fix an issue at the facility, its French part-owner said Monday following a US media report of a potential leak.

CNN said the US government is 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".

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.

The gas leaked after the coating on some fuel rods had deteriorated, said an EDF spokesman, who asked not to be named.

Noble gases are elements which have low chemical reactivity -- in this case it was xenon and krypton.

The gases were collected and treated as part of a process to remove any radiocativity before their release, which was normal and "in accordance with regulations", the spokesman said.

I’m going to take a shot at this, having studied nuclear reactors as a matter of interest, not as part of my engineering career. Some of this everyone knows, I’m trying to put it together with what is reported to make sense, which none of the reports have made sense.

The reactor is producing more radioactive gas than it should. Nowhere is the question why addressed and the reason why the French have gone to the Americans is they want to use American technology to resolve the issue, but that technology requires an export license. In other words, we loaned/gave/sold technology to the French with the understanding that they would not loan/give/or sell that technology to others without an export permit. This is almost always because that technology either enables weapon production or is a dual use technology that has civilian and military applications. My guess is this is a coating material which also can be used in nuclear weapons to change the explosion to something different. Our latest weapons can be dialed in for a low yield, for use on battlefields or near places where we don’t want collateral damage, or for very high yields, when nothing less than ten megatons will do. I am guessing that is the issue. (A wild, but informed opinion.)

The issue is not the radioactive gas. That’s the result. The rods are lowered into the pile to slow down the reaction. The lower the rods...further into the pile...they go, the less heat, the less gas, but also less power output. The Chinese are still operating the reactor and have simply raised the amount of radioactive gas that’s acceptable. This may be fine, as the current level may be California safe...as opposed to realistically safe. The question is, why is there more than the expected amount of gas. My guess is the rods are deteriorating. They probably need to be replaced which, I’m guessing would mean shutting down the reactor. I suspect that if you have a relatively hot core, as it would be if producing a lot of steam/power, then removing a rod to replace it may cause a local meltdown. Which means you can’t reinsert the rod.
That means the core could be in danger of a spontaneous meltdown, resulting in a significant steam blowout along with a Chernobyl style release of radioactive material. (One hundred and twenty million people live locally to the reactor.)

nowhere is it clear exactly what is causing the gas or what technology the French want to supply. Obviously, the old rods work fine, but wear out. So, shut the reactor down, then put in rods made like the old ones and then bring it back up. The issue is probably that the officials in charge do not want the political blowback this would cause, so they want better American rods...and they can use that technology to improve their bombs. Anyone want to bet the Biden administration give is?

“It all sounds like a muted cry for help that obviously can’t be made in a fully public way.”

At the heart of the Chernobyl disaster was a bureaucratic manager who was being criticized by his management for not doing a particular safety test. They hadn’t done it because they had to keep running the reactor for power. He was going to squeeze the test in during a lull in power requirement, but that meant doing the test really fast rather than letting the reactor normalize. The operators tried to warn him and he beat them down, demanding that they cool the reactor quickly. When problems developed they tried to reinsert the rods, but couldn’t because the core had melted...distorting the shafts so the rods would not go down. The processes are non-linear which is why no one had ever done this before, but this guy had gotten into his position without the knowledge of how the reactor really worked. What the French are doing is trying to find their way around some similar guy who demands they keep raising power to meet the demands of his bosses even though there is a problem...that the manager probably does not understand.

Even after the disaster, the manager continued to believe nothing was wrong even though the area outside was covered with snowflake like fallout and a man sent to see came back and reported the building had been destroyed. The manager called everyone idiots. I’m afraid it’s a similar situation here. It’s probably too late to stop whatever is going to happen as it would require shutting down the reactor which is politically unconceivable.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.