The No. 2 reactor at the Guosheng Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s Wanli District (萬里) was disconnected shortly after it was reactivated yesterday following a month of maintenance, operator Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) said, adding that it was still analyzing the cause of the malfunction.
The reactor was started and connected to a generator yesterday morning, but 35 minutes later, the generator’s circuit breaker was tripped as the safety system was triggered for unknown reasons, Taipower said.
The crew manually shut down the generator and the reactor immediately afterward, and was looking into what activated the safety system, the state-run company said.
The incident did not damage the reactor at all, and there is no radiation leak, Taipower said, adding that there is no cause for concern.
Annual maintenance of the reactor started on April 12, and the Atomic Energy Council approved the company’s request to reactivate the reactor yesterday, but the reactivation was aborted when the reactor had just reached 16 percent of its capacity.
Taipower spokesperson Lin Te-fu (林德福) said the generator might have been automatically disconnected because the system was connected to ground, as the system received a signal indicating a grounding.
“We are looking into where the generator is connected to ground. After that, we have to inspect whether the generator is damaged and replace damaged parts. We are not sure when the investigation will be completed and when the reactor can be reactivated again,” Lin said.
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