7 Mar (NucNet): Nuclear installations including the High Flux Reactor (HFR) at Petten in the Netherlands can withstand extreme conditions including flooding events and earthquakes, or a combination of both, a stress test has shown.
For the test, operator Nuclear Research and Consultancy Group (NRG) analysed the degree to which the installations are resistant to extreme conditions.
NRG said the test showed that the nuclear installations in Petten meet “all safety-relevant permit requirements” and can also withstand “a wide range of extreme weather conditions as well as earthquakes”. The likelihood that these will ever occur is minimal, NRG said.
The test also showed it is possible to increase safety margins even more by taking a number of measures. For instance, NRG will make it possible to rapidly install an external generator at the reactor and to improve the anchoring of water storage tanks to keep them in place in the event of an earthquake or flood.
NRG will also develop new procedures that must be followed when there is a threat of a serious situation.
Following the March 2011 nuclear disaster at Fukushima-Daiichi in Japan, all nuclear power plants in Europe have been subjected to stress tests.
Although the HFR is not a commercial nuclear power plant, but a research and isotope production reactor, NRG decided to perform a stress test on the reactor and on the other nuclear facilities at Petten.
In January 2012 the Dutch government approved a new research reactor to be built at Petten to replace the HFR, which has been in operation since 1961 and is reaching the end of its economic life.
The stress test report and supplementary information are online: http://robuustheidsonderzoek.nrg.eu.
