nuclear-news

The US NRC states that defective breakers may keep the Standby Gas Treatment System, which “limits release to the environment of radioisotopes…under accident conditions” from doing its job.

However, there are so many of these breakers that they might also keep the routine radiation filtration from working, which while incomplete is still more protective than no filtration. And, defective breakers may create conditions leading to a nuclear disaster. With so many potentially defective breakers, almost anything could happen.

Most likely these defective breakers allowed the outage during an electrical storm earlier this year, and a loss of coolant which could have led to a meltdown. “A circuit breaker is an automatically operated electrical switch designed to protect an electrical circuit from damage caused by overcurrent or overload or short circuit.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circuit_breaker In the context of a power station, however, breakers can also act as parts…