Nuclear plant leak not a major concern: HK expert

A Hong Kong nuclear engineering expert says operators of the Taishan power plant in Guangdong seem to be coping with what appears to be a leakage of noble gases, as radiation levels in Taishan and the SAR remain normal.

CNN reported on Monday that the US government is assessing a report of a leak at the plant about 130 kilometres west of Hong Kong, after its French joint-venture operator, Framatome, warned of an “imminent radiological threat”.

The operator’s mother company, EDF, said there was an “increase in the concentration of certain noble gases” in one of the reactors.

The increased concentration suggests that fuel rods are leaking noble gases, a byproduct of nuclear fission, according to Luk Bing-lam, an expert on nuclear engineering at City University.

He said so far, the plant operators appear to have managed the leak using normal procedures.

“The [plant operators] normally extract [the gases] from the primary loop, and then store it for a while to let the radiation level die down a bit….before releasing the gases to the atmosphere, Luk told RTHK.

“As a whole, that shouldn’t cause any major concern to the general public.”

He said if the concentration of the gases reaches a certain level, this would amount to a level zero or level one incident, and the plant would have to suspend operations.

Luk – who also chairs the Hong Kong Nuclear Society – noted that the plant is still up and running.

Meanwhile, the founder of a green group said the public should not be kept in the dark about what is happening at the plant as this will only add to people’s worries.

“The government should find out from the mainland authorities what exactly happened, and it should be really transparent to all Hong Kong people,” said The Green Earth’s Edwin Lau.

Chief Executive Carrie Lam said earlier on Tuesday that everything at the plant is as it should be, but the government would be asking mainland authorities for more information.