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Decommissioned Brunsbüttel nuclear power plant on the Elbe
Photo: Jannis Grosse / IMAGO
A leak occurred on September 28 during flushing measures on a discharge line at the Brunsbüttel nuclear power plant in Schleswig-Holstein, according to the Ministry of Energy and the operating company Vattenfall.
"While rinsing a filter tank that was to be completely emptied, damage was found to the connection weld of the rinsing fitting," writes Vattenfall.
The defective line is part of the concentrate processing system and is located in the restricted area of the reactor building of the nuclear power plant, as the ministry announced.
In the vicinity of the leak, Vattenfall found a small amount of radioactive contamination.
According to Vattenfall, there were no effects on people or the system.
The reactor safety authority has now commissioned experts to carry out further regulatory checks.
Because the affected pipeline is active in the processing plant, Vattenfall had to submit a category "N" report under nuclear law, according to the statement from the Ministry of Energy.
“N” therefore stands for “normal report”, and there are also the categories “breaking news” and “immediate news”.
According to the notification, a normal report means a reporting period of five working days.
After the reactor accident in Fukushima in Japan in 2011, the decision was made to decommission Brunsbüttel.
At the end of 2018, the state government in Kiel approved the planned demolition of the nuclear power plant, and the plant has been shut down permanently since 2007.
ani/Reuters
