A nuclear reactor in southern China has been reconnected to the grid more than a year after it was shut down to repair damage, its operator said.
Part of the Taishan nuclear power plant in Guangdong province was shut down last July after Chinese authorities reported minor fuel rod damage and a build-up of radioactive gases at the facility.
Operators reconnected the damaged reactor after months of “inspection and maintenance,” China General Nuclear Power Group (CGN) said in an exchange report late Tuesday.
“The monitoring results of the Taishan nuclear power plant and its surroundings are normal,” CGN said in the filing, without giving further details.
Operated in partnership with French nuclear company Framatome, the facility uses the European Pressurized Reactor (EPR) design developed to restart nuclear power in Europe after the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.
The design is touted as having higher performance and better security, but EPR projects in Finland, France and the UK have been plagued by delays and cost overruns.
The reactor has more than 60,000 fuel rods and the percentage of damaged rods is “less than 0.01 percent,” China’s Environment Ministry and Nuclear Regulatory Agency said ahead of the reactor’s shutdown.
They called the damage “inevitable” due to factors such as fuel manufacturing and transportation.
French energy giant EDF – the majority owner of Framatome – also previously blamed the generation of radioactive gases at the Taishan plant on the deteriorating coating on some uranium fuel rods.
Official environmental monitoring data from last year showed a slight increase in radiation near Taishan compared to other nuclear power plants in China, but within the normal range of ambient radiation in Guangdong.
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