The Vandellòs I nuclear Incident was a fire that caused an interruption of the cooling system in the

Vandellòs Nuclear Power Plant The Vandellòs Nuclear Power Plant is a nuclear power plant in Vandellòs i l'Hospitalet de l'Infant, Vandellòs located close to the Coll de Balaguer pass (Baix Camp comarca) in Catalonia, Spain. Unit one was a 508 MWe carbon dioxide gas cooled ...

Catalonia Catalonia is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationalities and regions of Spain, nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia of 2006, Statute of Autonomy. Most of its territory (except the Val d'Aran) is situate ...

(Spain) on 19 October 1989. At the end of

Francoist Spain Francoist Spain (), also known as the Francoist dictatorship (), or Nationalist Spain () was the period of Spanish history between 1936 and 1975, when Francisco Franco ruled Spain after the Spanish Civil War with the title . After his death i ...

, France sold Spain a UNGG reactor. This already obsolete energy technology was installed because as a

by-product A by-product or byproduct is a secondary product derived from a production process, manufacturing process or chemical reaction; it is not the primary product or service being produced. A by-product can be useful and marketable or it can be cons ...

it provided

plutonium Plutonium is a chemical element; it has symbol Pu and atomic number 94. It is a silvery-gray actinide metal that tarnishes when exposed to air, and forms a dull coating when oxidized. The element normally exhibits six allotropes and four ...

that could be used to manufacture

atomic bombs A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission or atomic bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear weapon), producing a nuclear explos ...

. Vandellòs I Nuclear Power Plant was inaugurated in 1972 when there were only two operational nuclear power plants in Spain: Garoña and

Zorita Zorita is a municipality located in the province of Cáceres, Extremadura, Spain. According to the 2006 census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population ...

. Seventeen years after opening, the rudimentary technology produced a mechanical failure in the

steam turbine A steam turbine or steam turbine engine is a machine or heat engine that extracts thermal energy from pressurized steam and uses it to do mechanical work utilising a rotating output shaft. Its modern manifestation was invented by Sir Charles Par ...

which caused a fire. The cabling of the plant was not

fireproof Fireproofing is rendering something ( structures, materials, etc.) resistant to fire, or incombustible; or material for use in making anything fire-proof. It is a passive fire protection measure. "Fireproof" or "fireproofing" can be used as a ...

, and the control computer and the cooling system would also receive damage. A

core meltdown A nuclear meltdown (core meltdown, core melt accident, meltdown or partial core melt) is a severe nuclear reactor accident that results in core damage from overheating. The term ''nuclear meltdown'' is not officially defined by the Internatio ...

was avoided due to the intervention of the Corps of Firefighters of Catalonia and the plant technicians, who were able to extinguish the fire and turn off the nuclear reactor manually. It continues to be one of the most significant nuclear accidents in

Western Europe Western Europe is the western region of Europe. The region's extent varies depending on context. The concept of "the West" appeared in Europe in juxtaposition to "the East" and originally applied to the Western half of the ancient Mediterranean ...

, classified as a serious incident according to the

International Nuclear Event Scale The International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale (INES) was introduced in 1990 by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in order to enable prompt communication of safety significant information in case of nuclear accidents. The s ...

. Consequently, the plant would be decommissioned, due to the damage in the systems, and new safety protocols were introduced because the old ones proved to be insufficient.

References

External links

Youtube video: 25 years since the nuclear accident of Vandellòs I
{{in lang, ca Civilian nuclear power accidents Fires in Spain Nuclear accidents and incidents Nuclear power stations in Catalonia 1989 disasters in Spain

See also

References

External links