CNN quoted sources that the US government received a report last week of a “radiological threat” at the Chinese Taishan nuclear power plant, and is investigating it.
The US News Network indicated that the warning of an “imminent radioactive threat” came from the French company Framatum, which partially owns and helps operate the Taishan nuclear power plant in Guangdong province.
According to CNN, the company said in a report to the US Department of Energy: “The situation poses an imminent radioactive threat to the facility and the public, and Framatum is urgently requesting permission to transmit technical data and assistance that may be required to return the plant to normal operation.”
The American television network quoted the Framatum Corporation that the Chinese regulator had raised the limits of radiation detection outside the nuclear power plant, in order to avoid the closure of the facility.
An informed source told the network that US officials currently do not believe that the leak has reached a “crisis level”, but they acknowledge that the situation warrants monitoring.
And sources revealed, according to the American television network, that the US National Security Council held, against the background of this report, several meetings during the past week, and the US administration discussed the situation with the French government and experts in the Ministry of Energy, and it was reported that the United States had made contacts with the Chinese government, but Its extent is unknown.
It was also reported that Framatum approached the United States to obtain permission, which would allow the use of American technical assistance to solve the problem at the Chinese plant.
In turn, the French electric power company and operator of nuclear power plants “Électricité de France” announced that it had reported an increase in the concentration of rare gases at the Chinese Taishan nuclear power plant.
“We have been informed of an increase in the concentration of some rare gases in the primary circuit of Reactor 1 at the Taishan Nuclear Power Plant,” the French electric power company said in a statement issued on Monday.
It is noteworthy that the presence of such gases in the primary circuit of the reactor is a well-known phenomenon stipulated in the operating procedures of the reactors.
At the same time, it was reported that the French company had requested an extraordinary board of directors for TNPJVC, the owner and operator of this joint venture, to take the necessary decisions.
Source: Novosti