France’s Engie has postponed the restart of units 1 and 2 at Belgium’s Doel NPP. Unit 1, previously scheduled to restart on 3 September, will now remain closed until 10 December while the restart of unit 2 was postponed from 7 October to 31 December. Unit 1 was closed in April after a leak was detected in the primary circuit. The cause of the leak has not yet been determined and the unit will remain offline until tests and repairs are concluded, according to the Federal Agency for Nuclear Control (Fanc). However, Engie-Electrabel pinpointed the source of the leak using an endoscope and said it was caused by a crack in a weld on a reserve line connected to the primary circuit. Fanc said inspections and pipe replacement work would also be carried out at unit 2. “Operations to replace the part of the pipe concerned are being prepared,” Fanc noted that Engie-Electrabel had removed the affected part of the pipe from Doel 1 and is carrying out analysis in a laboratory. In May 2018 Engie-Electrabel said the leak was “a few litres per minute” and was in a difficult location for repair Fanc said the incident had been classified as Level 0 on the International Atomic Energy Agency’s International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale. Doel-1 and Doel-2 are 433MWe pressurised water reactor units.
