Ascó nuclear power plant in Tarragona, in an archive image.Albert Garcia
The Ascó I nuclear power plant (Tarragona) has notified the Nuclear Safety Council (CSN) that it has unscheduled its activity to carry out a “review of the associated instrumentation” following an incident in one of the reactor’s coolant pumps. The plant was disconnected from the power grid at 9:30 p.m. on Friday “after several episodes of strong vibration signals were detected coming from one of the sensors that take measurements on the shaft of one of the pumps.”
The information about the nuclear power plant ensures that the incident had no impact on workers, the public or the environment and that the power plant will be resynchronized with the power grid once the work and relevant controls have been completed.
According to the information available so far, the unscheduled shutdown is classified as level 0 (off scale) on the International Scale of Nuclear and Radiological Events (INES, which goes up to the number 7, major accident) and therefore has no safety significance, according to CSN. After detecting several episodes of strong vibration signals in one of the shaft sensors of one of the reactor’s coolant pumps, Ascó I’s leaders decided to gradually reduce the load until they were disconnected from the power grid and the turbine was stopped to gain access to the safety area, to carry out the necessary work to replace the pump sensors and correct the anomaly.
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