Curious - from the Hong Kong Free Press:
‘Imminent radiological threat’: French firm seeks to resolve issue at Chinese nuclear plant near Hong Kong
A French nuclear firm said Monday it was working to resolve a “performance issue” at a plant it part-owns in China’s southern Guangdong province following a US media report of a potential leak there.
Yadda yadda yadda... And then this caught my eye:
EDF later said that there was an “increase in the concentration of certain noble gases in the primary circuit of reactor no. 1” at Taishan, referring to a part of the reactor’s cooling system.
Noble gases are elements like argon, helium and neon which have low chemical reactivity.
Errrr... 'ya all forgot to mention Xenon. Xenon is critical. Remember this: Iodine Pit - it's a thing. Google it.
From the entry at InfoGalactic: Iodine Pit
Iodine pit, also called iodine hole and xenon pit, is a temporary disabling of a nuclear reactor due to buildup of short-lived nuclear poisons in the core of a nuclear reactor. The main isotope responsible is xenon-135, mainly produced by natural decay of iodine-135. Iodine-135 is a weak neutron absorber, while xenon-135 is the most powerful known neutron absorber. When xenon-135 builds up in the fuel rods of a reactor, it significantly lowers their reactivity, by absorbing a significant amount of the neutrons which provide the nuclear reaction.
The presence of iodine-135 and xenon-135 in the reactor is one of the main reasons for its power fluctuations in reaction to change of control rod positions.
The buildup of short-lived fission products acting as nuclear poisons is called reactor poisoning, or xenon poisoning. Buildup of stable or long-lived neutron poisons is called reactor slagging.
Again, this is a new reactor design. This is not an established design, this is a so-called "3rd generation" PBW Reactor. You can run the core hot to get rid of the Xenon but its rate of decay is not known for this core (new reactor design - duhhh) and the danger of overshooting and overheating the core is a possibility. This is what started the whole ball rolling at Chernobyl.
I am getting my iodine pills out this afternoon - they are in my prepper stash. Just to be safe.
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