nuclear-news

‘Near miss’ at Chalk River nuclear reactor

Atomic Energy of Canada playing down ‘near-miss’ at Ontario nuclear reactorBy Steve Mertl | Daily Brew – Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. (AECL) is playing down the danger caused by a so-called “near-miss” at its nuclear reactor in Chalk River, Ont., but says it’s still being taken seriously.

An operator mistakenly shut off a pumping system that supplies coolant to the reactor’s core, officials of the Crown corporation told the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission on Wednesday…….

Unless there’s a release of radiation, the public rarely hears about accidents at nuclear facilities, so AECL’s session before the commission provided a rare glimpse into what can happen.

The Chalk River site, about a two-hour drive northwest of Ottawa, is Canada’s foremost nuclear research facility. It’s also the oldest, first established during the Second World War as part of the atomic bomb program. After the war it transitioned into research on the peaceful uses of nuclear energy and production of isotopes used in medicine.

The facility was the scene of two nuclear accidents in the 1950s, the first in 1952, severely damaging a reactor and creating 4,500 tons of radioactive water that was dumped in ditches near the Ottawa River. A 1958 incident involving the NRU reactor contaminated the reactor building and surrounding area.

The NRU reactor, which went online in 1957, was temporarily shut down in 2007 to deal with safety issues, raising concern about a worldwide shortage of medical isotopes during the year-long closure. It also suffered a radioactive water leak in 2008. The reactor was shut down again in 2009 for more than a year after the water leak recurred.

The latest incident seems trivial by comparison but could have had serious consequences……

According to a 2011 article in the Guardian newspaper, there have been 33 serious incidents and accidents at nuclear power plants since the first Chalk River meltdown in 1952. That one was rated a Level 5 incident on an ascending scale of 1 to 7…..

A 2011 post on the website of the environmental Bellona Foundation warned of an alarming number of emergency shutdowns, or scrams, and unscheduled repairs at Russian nuclear power stations…..http://ca.news.yahoo.com/blogs/dailybrew/atomic-energy-canada-playing-down-near-miss-ontario-185900047.html

May 18, 2013 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Canada, incidents