nuclear-news

Documents Reveal Hidden Problems at Russia’s Nuclear Powerhouse

• Flagship reactor had unusual safety event in February 2022
• Rosatom said its reactors all meet highest safety standards

By Alberto Nardelli and Jonathan Tirone, December 18, 2023

As Russian troops poured into Ukraine at the start of Vladimir Putin’s invasion in February last year, alarm was rising at a flagship Kremlin nuclear project in neighboring Belarus, just a short distance from the European Union’s border.

Engineers at Rosatom Corp. preparing a new 1,200-megawatt reactor, which was not yet connected to the power grid, to generate electricity at the Astravets Nuclear Power Plant detected a mysterious and exceedingly rare problem. Resin was seeping into the primary circuit, threatening to seize up critical components, according to internal documents of the Russian state nuclear……………………….(Subscribers only) more https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-12-18/documents-reveal-hidden-problems-at-russia-s-nuclear-powerhouse

December 20, 2023 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Russia, safety