Russia halts reactor after leak at nuclear plant

[ensho]

http://www.nuclearpowerdaily.com/reports/Russia_halts_reactor_after_leak_at_nuclear_plant_999.html


Russia on Friday shut down a reactor at its nuclear power plant near the second city of Saint Petersburg after a pump burst, a spokesman for the plant told AFP.
The leak in one of the Leningrad nuclear power plant's four power blocs was discovered late Thursday, the spokesman Sergei Averianov said, adding that levels of radioactivity in the area were within the accepted norm.

Along with repair work on another of the plant's reactors, work on the ruptured pump should be complete by August 31, when the nuclear plant should be fully back online, he added.

Currently only two of the four power blocs at the plant are running.

The Leningrad plant in the town of Sosnovy Bor, about 70 kilometres from Saint Petersburg, is equipped with the same reactors as Ukraine's Chernobyl plant, site of an unprecedented nuclear catastrophe in April 1986.
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[Pangolin2]

1. A non-incident.

A mechanical gizmo broke, they are fixing it.

[cherokeeprogressive]

2. Thanks for keeping us up to speed on non-stories. We appreciate it.

Recommending this because everyone should see stories about nuclear non-events.

[ensho]

3. thank you, I will continue reporting nuke plant events

nt

[SidDithers]

4. Multiply redundant safety systems working...

that's a good thing, you know.

Sid

[redqueen]

11. Yep...

if the point of these alerts is to reinforce confidence in nuclear power... well then, well done!

[bushmeister0]

5. Not that Russia's Soviet era infrastructure is falling to pieces or anything.

From an article explaining the Kursk disaster and the burning Moscow TV tower disaster the same week in 2000:

" . . . Almost 70 percent of the population drinks water that is unfit by U.S. standards. One-third of waste water is released untreated. Railways, electricity, oil and gas pipelines, roads and bridges all need massive infusions of cash . . .

Leonid Gozman, an official with a Russian electrical power monopoly, told the same conference that the Russian national electric grid will need at least $70 billion over the next five to seven years to maintain current levels of power output, or the country will face a severe energy crisis as the power distribution system collapses.

In Moscow earlier this year, the Emergency Situations Ministry issued an apocalyptic prediction that Russia was becoming vulnerable to innumerable technological disasters, such as fires, collapsing buildings, radiation leaks, pipeline ruptures, and toxic spills. Experts warned that much of Russia's industrial equipment might become virtually useless within five years.

The estimated cost of these needed repairs is about a hundred billion dollars, about five times the total annual budget of the Federal government."

http://www.jamesoberg.com/122000russinfra_rus.html

And then came the energy boom. Too bad the Oligarchs and Putin's FSB buddies ran off with all the oil and gas money before they fixed the place up.

And that hydro-electric dam bursting in Siberia two weeks ago isn't anything to worry about either. It's all just a coincidence. Good, clean, green, cheap, safe nuclear power.

[ensho]

6. and they have a huge alcoholic problem

so huge that some depts. can barely function.

[bushmeister0]

8. To say nothing of the epidemic of infectious diseases!

I saw one Russian scientist quoted as saying the rise of malaria was the fault of immigrants. So, their medical infrastructure is also crumbling.

[Codeine]

7. NEWS FLASH! NOTHING HAPPENED!

No film at eleven!

I love the way this fellow constantly highlights the safety features of nuclear power plants operating as designed while thinking he's somehow pointing out a flaw.

[bushmeister0]

9. Nothing happened this time.

Just ignore all the other things that did happen. I think you're missing the larger point here. How long will nothing keep happening to Russia's crumbling infrastructure?

[Statistical]

10. That is a concern but not limited to nuclear reactors.

The hydro electric dam bursting is a symptom of the same problem.

You can't go decades without routine maintenance and have no problems.

Sad thing is with oil @ $70 the oil Russia has enough wealth to take care of essential repairs but the money is lost/wasted via crippling corruption. Money goes into peoples pockets and into useless programs rather than what the country desperately needs.