Nuclear reactors: surprisingly simple after all
Can a nuclear reactor be made idiot proof? We ask the question after this weekend when a technician at the Czech Republic’s Dukovany nuclear power plant managed to power down the number two reactor by simply brushing up against a control panel (one report suggests he fell against a button). This isn’t the first time it’s happened at Dukovany.
It sounds ridiculously easy to do. We thought nuclear reactors were hugely complex machines not something that can be interfered with by the slightest stumble. They have four of these reactors – the commonly used Soviet era WER-440 – at Dukovany. It’s a wonder any electricity gets generated there. On this occasion the clumsy technician’s mishap has cost eight million Czech crowns. Let’s hope they’re treading a little more carefully at Dukovany today. And at Bohunice and Mochovce in Slovakia, Kola in Russia, Kozloduy in Bulgaria, Paks in Hungary, and Rivne in Ukraine.
