The French nuclear safety authority DSIN ordered EdF to draw up a schedule to instal catalytic hydrogen recombiners on all 58 of its PWRs. EdF have been told that the recombiners must be fitted by 2007.
The decision ends a long period of wavering by the utility over use of recombiners, designed to destroy H2 produced by reaction of fuel cladding with steam in the event of a core-melt accident. An H2 detonation is believed to have occurred during the Three Mile Island accident.
