Ascó Nuclear Power Plant
Encyclopedia
Ascó Nuclear Power Plant is a nuclear power station located in Ascó
, Catalonia
, in Spain
.
It consists of two PWR
s of 933 and 943 MWe
.
level 2 incident occurred on November 2007 at the Unit 1 reactor. The Spanish Nuclear Safety Council (CSN) was not advised of the leak until April 4. Although the leak happened in November, particles were not detected outdoors until March 2008.
CSN initially estimated that total radioactivity
detected was about 235,000 becquerel
s. The council operating the plant later estimated that a maximum of 84.95 million becquerels of radioactivity were spilled. CSN announced it was changing the classification of the leak from Level 1 to Level 2 because of "inadequate control of radioactive material and of providing incomplete and deficient information to the controlling body." An investigation was opened and the director of the plant was fired.
Ascó
Ascó is a large village in the comarca of Ribera d'Ebre, Catalonia, Spain, on the right bank of the Ebre river. The village of Ascó is known for its nuclear power station, and for excellent fishing in the river....
, Catalonia
Catalonia
Catalonia is an autonomous community in northeastern Spain, with the official status of a "nationality" of Spain. Catalonia comprises four provinces: Barcelona, Girona, Lleida, and Tarragona. Its capital and largest city is Barcelona. Catalonia covers an area of 32,114 km² and has an...
, in Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
.
It consists of two PWR
Pressurized water reactor
Pressurized water reactors constitute a large majority of all western nuclear power plants and are one of three types of light water reactor , the other types being boiling water reactors and supercritical water reactors...
s of 933 and 943 MWe
MWE
MWE may refer to:*Manufacturer's Weight Empty*McDermott Will & Emery*Midwest Express, an airline*Merowe Airport - IATA code*Multiword expressionMWe may refer to:*Megawatt electrical...
.
2007 leak
An INESInternational Nuclear Event Scale
The International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale was introduced in 1990 by the International Atomic Energy Agency in order to enable prompt communication of safety significance information in case of nuclear accidents....
level 2 incident occurred on November 2007 at the Unit 1 reactor. The Spanish Nuclear Safety Council (CSN) was not advised of the leak until April 4. Although the leak happened in November, particles were not detected outdoors until March 2008.
CSN initially estimated that total radioactivity
Radioactive decay
Radioactive decay is the process by which an atomic nucleus of an unstable atom loses energy by emitting ionizing particles . The emission is spontaneous, in that the atom decays without any physical interaction with another particle from outside the atom...
detected was about 235,000 becquerel
Becquerel
The becquerel is the SI-derived unit of radioactivity. One Bq is defined as the activity of a quantity of radioactive material in which one nucleus decays per second. The Bq unit is therefore equivalent to an inverse second, s−1...
s. The council operating the plant later estimated that a maximum of 84.95 million becquerels of radioactivity were spilled. CSN announced it was changing the classification of the leak from Level 1 to Level 2 because of "inadequate control of radioactive material and of providing incomplete and deficient information to the controlling body." An investigation was opened and the director of the plant was fired.
External links
- Consejo de Seguridad Nuclear profile
- Nuclear Power Plants - Spain at the Nuclear Tourist website.