A reactor shutdown that occurred at the Third Nuclear Power Plant in Pingtung County on Sunday created no nuclear safety concerns and a "root-cause analysis" by the Taiwan Power Company (Taipower,
A 1.5cm-long hairline crack in one of the pipes used to cool a power generator that produces energy to power the reactor at the plant's Unit 2, caused water spillage on Sunday morning, AEC officials said yesterday.
The water triggered alarms, leading to an automatic reactor shutdown at the plant.
"We don't think the incident has anything to do with a nuclear accident," said Ni Maw-sherg (
Ni said that the broken pipe was replaced yesterday and a pressure test was carried out to ensure that the new pipe will perform well.
AEC officials will review a root-causes analysis that will be submitted by Taipower in days. They will then decide whether to let Unit 2, which is currently at "hot-standby" status, go back to full operations.
This was the second reported incident at the plant since an annual overhaul of the plant was completed on June 1. On June 6, a component of one of two reactors at the plant broke down, leading to a shutdown. The plant went back to normal on June 9 but only functioned normally for a week until Sunday.
AEC Vice Chairman Chiou Syh-tsong (邱賜聰) said yesterday that the design of nuclear power plants features multiple protective measures to prevent accidents involving the nuclear core.
"The reactor shutdown [on Sunday] does not mean that the plant has problems," Chiou said.
Taipower yesterday said that the accident did not cause a power shortage because the plant's reserve mechanisms could satisfy the demand for electrical power from their customers.
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