Spanish reactors hit by series of incidents

26 August 2008

[Reuters, 26 August] Spain's nuclear safety regulator, the Nuclear Safety Council (Consejo De Seguridad Nuclear, CSN) has called for a meeting of the country's nuclear power plant operators following a series of minor incidents. On Monday, the Garona plant was taken offline following an error in work on high-voltage installations which automatically shut down the plant, which has now been restarted. The previous day, unit two of the Vandellos plant automatically shut down when equipment related to its generators caught fire. The reactor will remain offline until the full extent of the damage has been assessed. In a statement, the CSN said it had "decided to call a meeting of the liaison committee, in which owners of all nuclear assets are represented, to follow up on the latest incidents in the plants and analyse the operators' action plans." The latest incidents came just days after the CSN delivered its opinion on the failings that led to a small release of radioactive particles from the Ascó plant in April to government.

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