Beijing (AFP)
A month and a half after the announcement of an incident at the Taishan EPR nuclear power plant in China, the Chinese operator CGN finally indicated on Friday "shutting down for maintenance" the offending reactor.
Built in partnership with the French energy group EDF, the power plant near Hong Kong is the only EPR installation currently in service in the world.
On June 14, Chinese authorities reported an incident at reactor number 1 at the plant, located in the south of the country.
A small number of damaged uranium fuel rods ("rods") caused an accumulation of rare radioactive gases in the sealed primary circuit of the plant.
The authorities had called the phenomenon "current" and ruled out any danger.
EDF had, however, publicly declared a week ago that if the incident had happened in France, it would have shut down the reactor.
In Taishan, however, such a decision rests with TNPJVC, the joint venture operating the plant.
EDF holds 30%, alongside the Chinese CGN which owns 70%.
"The Taishan nuclear power plant (...) making safety its top priority (...) decided to shut down Reactor 1 for maintenance, in order to find the cause of the damage affecting the fuel and to replace the damaged fuel "CGN said in a statement.
The Chinese nuclear giant specifies that the decision was taken "after a substantial discussion between Chinese and French technical staff".
According to CGN, the shutdown of the reactor is not, however, the result of imminent danger.
The fuel damage "remains within the allowable range of technical specifications" and the reactor could "have continued to operate stably," according to the group.
EDF is not the main operator of the Taishan plant but has supplied the EPR technology.
© 2021 AFP