Accident Setback Chinese Reactor

["Sandy Perle" <sandyfl@earthlink.net>]

Monday July 5 11:06 AM ET 

Accident Setback Chinese Reactor

BEIJING (AP) - An accident a year ago crippled one of China's two 
nuclear power plants, leaving the reactor unable to generate 
electricity, an executive with the plant's state-run operator said 
today.  

While he said no one was hurt and no radiation leaked out, the 
problem at Qinshan nuclear power plant was the latest setback for 
China's ambitious nuclear energy program.  

In an indication of its sensitivity, the July 1998 accident was never 
reported by China's entirely state-run media.

Foreign and domestic engineers have worked to repair the plant, 
but the ``reactor is still down,'' said Pang Xiaoguang, with the
international division of China National Nuclear Corp.

Although Pang refused to elaborate, Japan's Kyodo News Agency 
reported Sunday that operators were forced to shut down the 
300,000-kilowatt pressurized-water reactor after radioactive 
materials seeped into the water used to keep the reactor from 
overheating.  

Guide pipes inside the reactor that had been bolted instead of 
welded on broke, damaging nine of 121 nuclear fuel assemblies 
and causing radioactive material to leak into the cooling water, 
Kyodo said, citing unnamed Chinese sources.  

The problem was discovered during an inspection of the plant last 
July and if left unchecked could have resulted in serious damage, 
Kyodo reported.  

Pang disputed the account, saying the accident ``was not as 
serious as Kyodo described.'' But he refused to explain the cause
of the accident.

Among the foreign contractors called in, according to Kyodo, was 
U.S.-based Westinghouse Electric Co. Telephone calls to 
Westinghouse's main China office in Beijing went unanswered 
Monday.  

Qinshan, located 50 miles south of Shanghai, went into operation 
two years behind schedule in 1991. It was touted as China's first 
domestically designed and built nuclear power plant, despite its 
Japanese reactor vessel, German coolant pump and French 
computer controls.  

China's only other operational nuclear reactor, at Daya Bay, near 
Hong Kong, was also plagued by construction delays and has had 
technical problems since it began operating in 1994.  

Despite those difficulties, China is aggressively trying expand 
nuclear power, which it sees as a cleaner alternative to the coal-
and oil-burning power plants it currently relies on.

Nuclear energy now accounts for one percent of China's energy 
production, but that proportion is set to triple in seven years.

Four more reactors are under construction at Qinshan. China will 
also build new plants at Ling'ao in booming southern Guangdong 
province and Lianyungang, near Shanghai.

------------------------
Sandy Perle
E-Mail: sandyfl@earthlink.net
Personal Website: http://www.geocities.com/capecanaveral/1205

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