Leakage of a liquid solution into the drip tray pit during a rinsing operation (R1 shearing facility).

Incident report

February 26, 2001

On the 24th February, in the R1 shearing facility in the UP2 800 plant, the leakage of a liquid solution was detected in the drip tray pit in the shearing-dissolution facility. After investigation, it was found that this liquid originated from a additional rinsing operation on a piece of process equipment that was not in production.

The rinsing operation was stopped immediately after detection and the preliminary observations indicate a watertightness fault in the chute connecting the shearer and the dissolver.

This event, which had no consequence on the personnel or the environment, indicates that normal operating conditions were exceeded. It was suggested to the Safety Authority that this should be classed the event Level 1 on the International Nuclear Event Scale (INES).